After football players at Northwestern University, with assistance from the National College Players Association advocacy group, moved in January to unionize, the university’s administration fought their efforts with legal action. This week, the Dartmouth sat down with the deputy athletics director Robert Ceplikas ’78 to discuss the Northwestern unionization case and its relation to Dartmouth athletics.
How do you think the case, which has received national attention, will impact Dartmouth?
RC: It won’t have any direct impact because it only applies to athletic scholarships, so the Ivies are immune from that. Now this is my opinion, but I don’t think it will hold up in the long run.
Could the right to unionize be extended to non-scholarship athletes?
RC: I have not seen any interpretation that would lead non-scholarship athletes to be affected by this. The very basis of the ruling was that it’s the scholarship that makes the student an employee.
What if the case makes its way to the Supreme Court and stands?
RC: Let’s just say, hypothetically, that the ruling does get upheld all the way to the Supreme Court, then the main impact on the Ivies will be that the really selective, private institutions that are most affected — the Northwesterns, the Dukes, the Stanfords — they’ll suddenly be looking for a very different type of athletic conference to compete in. They’ll drop their athletic scholarships and they’ll look for a conference like the Ivy League. Some of those schools would come knocking on the Ivy League’s door and express some kind of interest, if not joining the Ivy League itself, in making some scheduling agreements. They’ll be looking for competition from other non-scholarship schools that have similar academic philosophies. That could be a pretty major change.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
