June 22, 2006

Women's soccer disciplined

Following is a statement from Athletic Director Mark Murphy regarding hazing incidents involving women’s soccer.

A hazing incident involving Northwestern’s women’s soccer team occurred in August 2005. The incident involving the women’s soccer team consisted of underage drinking and additional inappropriate behavior that violated the University’s anti-hazing policy.

The Division of Student Affairs recently completed an investigation of the incident. The University concluded that there had been an incident of hazing under the University’s policy. As a result, the University and the Athletic Department are taking appropriate disciplinary action. While the program is no longer suspended, some members of the women’s soccer team are being placed on disciplinary probation while the entire team will be required to participate in a team community service project and to attend educational sessions on hazing. Also, selected players will serve suspensions from regular-season games during the 2006 season, which begins Aug. 25. Additional disciplinary action will be taken against several members of the team.

Federal law prohibits universities from releasing information about specific actions taken in regard to individual students.

The Athletic Department addresses hazing and other student-related issues annually. Last fall, each coach and student-athlete were given an institutional brochure on hazing and asked to formally acknowledge the receipt of the hazing policies. The department also held a mandatory educational session on hazing for all student-athletes and spirit squad members in April 2006.

As I have stated previously, Northwestern will not tolerate hazing of any kind. When it discovers allegations of hazing or other violations of student conduct regulations, the University will respond quickly and take the appropriate actions.