Illinois State Representative and former University of Illinois football player Kam Bucker is hopeful that a student-athlete bill of rights he's drafted will become law in the wake of a recent hazing scandal at Northwestern University's football program.
“We’ve got to do something different with the way we operate college sports in this country,” Bucker told WGN. “Listen, a college locker room is a very complicated place especially for a young rookie. It’s a very vulnerable time, I think, for a young athlete when they first step foot on campus.”
Bucker's legislation focuses on gender equity, guaranteed education benefits, and more recently has been amended to include language that will protect student-athletes from abusive environments.
Related: Northwestern Fires Pat Fitzgerald as Hazing Scandal Grows
An investigation into the hazing allegations at Northwestern have lead to the firing this week of head football coach Pat Fitzgerald.
“What we saw, what we heard, what the allegations are saying about Northwestern, to me they go beyond hazing. As I’ve said, if these are true allegations, this is sexual assault. Unwanted touching. Unwanted sexual activity,” Buckner said, adding that the Northwestern allegations have pushed him to amend his own bill.
“We hadn’t talked much about in the legislation that we currently have, we haven’t talked must about hazing, about whistleblower protection status so that young people have an opportunity to go to somebody within the university that is not necessarily their coach.”
Buckner's bill is modeled after a similar student-athlete bill of rights passed in California.
