Content note: The following text mentions death and suicide.
The Daily Northwestern reports that there are numerous accessibility issues on NU's campus, including academic buildings without elevators and uneven sidewalks. At least one student flipped over in their wheelchair recently, requiring the student to take a medical leave.
A student tells The Daily Northwestern that these issues make NU's campus unwelcoming to disabled students, likening it to "a negative feedback loop: Since the number of students with physical challenges enrolled at NU is so small, University administration does not prioritize fixing the problems affecting these students. But because these issues still exist, students with mobility conditions do not feel comfortable coming to NU."
For students with invisible disabilities, their experience at NU hasn't been much easier. A student tells Disability GPA, "There was always a general 'lack of believing in' any non-physical disabilities or conditions, in my program. It seems to be improving with a younger set of professors coming through but is still far from comfortable."
Earlier this year, the family of the late Professor Jane Wu filed a lawsuit against Northwestern for allegedly contributing to the suicide of the Chinese American neuroscientist, cancer survivor, and mother of two children. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) had launched an investigation into Wu's research for potential foreign influence in 2019. Although the suspicions were never substantiated, in the following years Northwestern placed increasing restrictions on Wu's research and reassigned her grants to white colleagues, which precipitated Wu's stroke and depression. "Because science and research are … an extremely important part of my life, having been ordered not to participate in any of our major research projects is a tremendous torture and stress to me," Wu wrote in a letter, reported by The Daily Northwestern.
In 2024, although Wu was "now in good standing at NU and therefore eligible to be designated by NU as key personnel on projects," the department chair, Professor Dimitri Krainc, proceeded to shut down Wu's lab, with colleagues indicating that her "physical lab space was generally in high demand," according to The Daily Northwestern. "The school used her emotional disability as a 'pretext' to evict her, and in late May, Northwestern sent law enforcement to remove her and place her in handcuffs," reported NBC News. Northwestern then had Wu forcibly committed to a psychiatric hospital. A month later, Wu died by suicide.
Northwestern University is ranked 6th best national university by U.S. News, an improvement from 9th place last year.
In 2019, the National Institutes of Health, a federal medical research agency that operates under the Department of Health and Human services, investigated Wu for any contacts related to China as part of a larger agency effort to investigate foreign influence at U.S. grantee institutions. Her work included “occasional international contacts” in China in addition to Argentina, Britain, Canada and more, the lawsuit said.
While there were never any charges, Northwestern made efforts to limit her from working during the probe, the suit said. And when the investigation failed to turn up any revelations, the school still continued to punish her, the suit said.
“NU did nothing to support her nor help lift the racial stigma placed over Dr. Wu despite her obvious innocence and the enormous funding her work had brought to NU,” the lawsuit said.
The Wu family suit, filed on June 23, says that the school’s treatment of Wu, including its alleged efforts to oust her, her physical eviction from her office and forced hospitalization, was a “substantial and decisive factor in her decision to end her life.” The estate is seeking an unspecified amount in compensatory and punitive damages.
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The ordeal had contributed to signs of depression and obsessive behavior in Wu as she attempted to protect her life’s work, the complaint said. She also suffered from a loss of vision as a result of a stroke she had under the stress of the investigation, the lawsuit said. But she was still able to work. The school used her emotional disability as a “pretext” to evict her, and in late May, Northwestern sent law enforcement to remove her and place her in handcuffs, the lawsuit said. The school then forcibly admitted her to the psychiatric unit of the Northwestern Memorial Hospital without notifying loved ones or consulting outside doctors, the lawsuit said.
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Cabacungan said problems with navigating campus have been the most frustrating part of his time at NU. And he’s not the only student facing these issues.
Students with physical disabilities make up 3% of students registered with AccessibleNU — the University’s accessibility office — according to its 2016 accessibility council report. Cabacungan and others said the University is not doing enough to remove access barriers around campus for those students.
From challenges communicating with administration to difficulty entering buildings and attending class, he said it has been an uphill battle to find justice — and belonging — on campus.
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The next morning, an assistant dean of students sent Mayed an email explaining they had received “concerning information” about him. If he did not go to the Dean of Students Office, the assistant dean would call his parents or UP, the email said.
“This was my third week of Fall Quarter freshman year,” Mayed said. “Can you just imagine reading that email?”
Mayed and his adviser met the dean of students, who took them to Searle Hall — which housed NUHS and CAPS — to meet Mayed’s doctor and therapist. His therapist told him he was unable to take care of himself and posed a danger to himself and others.
That was when UP arrived. The officers admitted him to Evanston Hospital for self-harm or harm to others under involuntary commitment.
Mayed was discharged two and a half hours later. He said the emergency room doctor said they were unsure why he was admitted, and referred him to a gastroenterologist, a specialist in disorders of the digestive system.
The gastroenterologist confirmed what Mayed said all along: he did not have an eating disorder.
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But early in her first season, the “dark side” of the program emerged, according to a federal lawsuit Richardson filed Friday against Northwestern. In the 58-page complaint, Richardson details repeated instances where she said she was groped by drunken fans and alumni during university-sanctioned events, alleging the cheer team’s head coach required female members to “mingle” with powerful donors for the school’s financial gain.
“It became clear to (Richardson) that the cheerleaders were being presented as sex objects to titillate the men that funded the majority of Northwestern’s athletics programs,” the lawsuit says. “After all, the happier these men were, the more money the university would receive from them.”
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