Video by Jon Palmer, Daniel Hersh and Ben Sanders / North By Northwestern
According to a poll conducted by Fluent, a college marketing firm, a majority of non-athlete college students oppose the idea of college athletes unionizing, an effort that begun on Northwestern's own campus. Among Northwestern students, however, support for the football players' petition to unionize is relatively high, despite many students' confusion about what the petition actually means.
In Fluent's study, 47 percent of the 900 students polled said they opposed unionization, while only 29 percent support it. The remaining 24 percent reported they were unsure.
In the same study, students expressed their concerns over what unionization would mean for non-athletes, including potential changes to financial aid:
- 51 percent said they were worried about "inequities between different sports"
- 53 percent said they were concerned about inequalities between student athletes and non-athletes
- Nearly 50 percent said they believed it would "hurt financial aid for non-athletes and could increase the cost of college"
No news has come out since the football players receiving scholarships voted whether to unionize Apr. 25. In March, Peter Ohr of the National Labor Relations Board in Chicago determined that Northwestern football players qualified as employees of the university and therefore can unionize. Shortly after, the university petitioned the NLRB's decision to the Washington office, which now has the final decision to make. If the NLRB rules that Northwestern football players can unionize, the Apr. 25 vote will be counted and the team will move from there.