NU president gives student newspaper first interview amid hazing scandal

Northwestern University President Michael Schill told the school’s student-run newspaper that its coverage of the hazing scandal affected his decision to reconsider his punishment of head football coach Pat Fitzgerald. After initially handing out a two-week suspension, Schill fired Fitzgerald three days later. (Provided)

Breaking his silence about the burgeoning hazing scandal, Northwestern University President Michael Schill says he fired head football coach Pat Fitzgerald — days after ordering a two-week suspension — after concluding Fitzgerald “didn’t try to find out what was happening” and “had to bear responsibility for that.”

Schill has been under fire for slapping Fitzgerald on the wrist and reconsidering only after the student newspaper, The Daily Northwestern, disclosed sordid details of the sexualized hazing.