Jim Dey: Impact of hazing scandal spreads past Northwestern boundaries

Jul. 22—It's time once again to dive into another round of quick takes on the people, places and events that were being talked about over the past week:

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It's the least surprising thing in the world that the Northwestern University football hazing scandal has turned into a lawsuit frenzy driven by money-hungry litigants and lawyers.

They know an easy target when they see one. Northwestern won't be able to write the settlement checks fast enough as a price for avoiding even more bad publicity for its athletic programs.

But the damage is spreading beyond Northwestern as a prominent former Illini — Jim Phillips — has been dragged into the behavioral and legal mess.

Phillips, a former Northwestern University athletic director and current commissioner of the ACC, is among the defendants named in lawsuits filed by lawyers for aggrieved athletes.

Phillips is a former graduate assistant under longtime basketball coach Lou Henson. The two were extremely close, with Henson acting as friend, mentor and career adviser to Phillips.

A one-time assistant basketball coach under Bill Frieder at Arizona State, Philips worked his way up the athletics administration ladder. A former AD at Northern Illinois and Northwestern, Phillips became the ACC's commissioner in 2021.

In response to the litigation, Phillips denied any knowledge of what occurred, stating that "my highest priority has always been the health and safety of all student-athletes."

He said recent weeks have been a "difficult time for the Northwestern University community that my entire family has called home."

Phillips, a Chicago native and 1990 UI graduate who hired former Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald, pledged to "vigorously defend himself" against any suggestion that he "condoned or tolerated inappropriate conduct."

I'm a victim

In an age when everyone is or wants to be victim of something, it was only a matter of time before faux academics formalized victimhood as an academic program.

Sam Houston State University (SHSU) in Texas has established a Department of Victim Studies.

The department's website indicates the class will embrace social justice ideology, stating that one purpose of the program is to "restore survivors' feelings of safety."

The words "survivors" and "safety" are two prominent buzz words in today's grievance-driven political atmosphere.

A quote from a department academic reveals the direction it will be taking. "The Victim Studies department is preparing students to better assist victims and make positive change in the criminal justice system," she said.

That suggests the real victims in the criminal justice systems are the the perpetrators of crime, not those who suffer from it.

How long will it be before this fad takes its place among the University of Illinois' various grievance studies departments?

R.I.P.

Illinois lost two prominent federal judges this week — 93-year-old Richard Mills of Springfield and 82-year-old James Zagel of Chicago.

Mills played a prominent role in Illinois judicial politics in 1984, when he was one of three candidates seeking the Fourth District seat on the Illinois Supreme Court

The other two were veteran jurists Ben Miller of Springfield and Fred Green of Urbana.

The powers-that-be in Springfield, including then-GOP boss Bill Cellini, were backing Miller.

So a deal was made in which Mills abandoned the Supreme Court race in exchange for promises of support for appointment as a federal judge in Springfield.

That left Miller with a one-on-one contest with Green, a contest he won in the GOP primary. Miller went on to defeat Democrat James Craven in the November general election.

Mills was named a federal judge in 1985 by President Reagan. He served until his death, taking senior status in 1997 but continuing to hear cases for years afterward.

In addition to being a lawyer and judge, Mills had a 33-year military career, serving as a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve's Judge Advocate General Corps and a Major General in the Illinois State Militia.

If that's not enough on his resume, he also was a decorated combat veteran of the Korean War and an Eagle Scout in his youth.

Zagel, in a different way, was equally distinguished. He served as director of the departments of revenue and state police under former Gov. James Thompson before becoming a federal judge.

But Zagel's career went far beyond that, demonstrating that he was not only a skilled lawyer and legal scholar but a man for all seasons.

The New York Times described him as a "wise and witty Renaissance man who found time to write a potboiler novel and who not only served as a judge but also played one, in the 1989 movie thriller, 'The Music Box.'"

His prominent cases included being one of the prosecutors who helped convict Richard Speck, the notorious murderer of eight student nurses in 1966. The The Times reported the Speck case helped establish Zagel's reputation as an "expert in forensic science, psychology and the reconciliation of constitutional doctrine and criminal procedure."

As a judge, he presided over the Operation Family Secrets trial of prominent Chicago organized crime bosses as well as the corruption trial of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Before sentencing Blagojevich to 14 years in prison, Zagel chastised Blagojevich for committing various corrupt acts that he said erode "public trust in government."

Gag me

Zagel's death produced many tributes from his admirers. But one from a non-admirer stood out for its self-serving disconnect from reality.

Issued by convicted felon and former Gov. Blagojevich, it read, Heard the news that the Judge who presided over both of my trials has died. He ran a Kangaroo Court. Law and justice were perverted. He gave me a 14-year sentence for things he knew were not crimes. My faith requires forgiveness. My condolences to his family."

The evidence in the Blagojevich's case was overwhelming that he engaged in multiple acts of public corruption for which he was properly convicted and sentenced.

To think Blagojevich was elected governor twice by the people of Illinois is a searing indictment of voters' collective judgment. Unfortunately, Illinoisans so often elect moral reprobates to public office that it's almost the exception, not the rule, when they make better choices.

Killing more trees

Retired University of Illinois government Professor Jim Nowlan has released a new book that provides a road map for those who wish to serve in public life or office.

Called "Politics: The Starter Kit — How to Succeed in Politics and Government," it's ninth book he's written.

"I draw in part on my own career over half a century in Illinois and D.C. — as an intern; legislative staffer; state legislator; statewide candidate; senior aide to three governors of Illinois; state agency director on three occasions; campaign manager for a U.S. senator (successful) and presidential candidate (interesting); lobbyist; newspaper columnist, and professor," he said.

To say his career in politics, government and academia is vast barely describes it. Nowlan said that 'whenever kicked out of government or politics" he took refuge as a senior fellow at the University's Institute of Government and Public Affairs. He has also taught at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University in Shanghai on three occasions" and lectured widely across China.

Those interested in pursuing the black art of politics could not have a better guide than Nowlan.