Editorial: Northwestern president did the right thing in firing football coach following hazing investigation

On Monday morning, we wrote that Northwestern University President Michael Schill needed to take some classes in communications or at least beef up his staffing in that area. Schill’s Saturday statement in the light of revelations of alleged hazing in Northwestern’s football program was a master class in how not to deal with such a polarizing situation.

For one thing, the laughable clause “upon reflection” to explain why he was doing an about-face in his thought process after deciding to suspend head football coach Pat Fitzgerald following an, commissioned by the university but conducted by an outside party, and saying that the findings did not offer persuasive evidence that Fitzgerald had knowledge of these goings-on and that various reforms and penalties had been put in place. Most notably, those included a two-week suspension for Fitzgerald, effectively a vacation, and the end of football activities at a Kenosha training camp, where these activities allegedly took place.