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Following Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald's firing Monday, Northwestern president Michael Schill released a public statement condemning the hazing scandal.
“The decision comes after a difficult and complex evaluation of my original discipline decision imposed last week on Coach Fitzgerald for his failure to know and prevent significant hazing in the football program,” Schill said. “Over the last 72 hours, I have spent a great deal of time in thought and in discussions with people who love our university.”
“Ultimately, the decision to originally suspend Coach Fitzgerald was mine and mine alone, as is the decision to part ways with him.”
Schill's statement served to clarify the facts surrounding the situation. Here are the abridged key points of the university president's message:
- During the investigation, eleven current or former football student-athletes acknowledged that hazing has been ongoing within the football program. This has never been about one former student-athlete and his motives; this is much bigger than that.
- The hazing included forced participation, nudity and sexualized acts of a degrading nature, in clear violation of Northwestern policies and values. I am grateful that — to my knowledge — no student suffered physical injury as a result of these behaviors.
- While some student-athletes believed the hazing was in jest and not harmful, others viewed it as causing significant harm with long-term consequences.
- The hazing was well-known by many in the program, though the investigator failed to find any credible evidence that Coach Fitzgerald himself knew about it.
- As the entire six-month independent investigation was confidential, I only recently learned many of the details, including the complainant’s identity. I spoke with his parents on Friday and the student on Sunday.”
Schill acknowledged that Pat Fitzgerald was a beloved member of the Northwestern institution, but the university's core values had to be of higher importance.
“Since Friday, I have kept going back to what we should reasonably expect from our head coaches, our faculty and our campus leaders. And that is what led me to make this decision. The head coach is ultimately responsible for the culture of his team. The hazing we investigated was widespread and clearly not a secret within the program, providing Coach Fitzgerald with the opportunity to learn what was happening. Either way, the culture in Northwestern Football, while incredible in some ways, was broken in others.”
Northwestern will search for Fitzgerald's replacement ahead of the 2023 college football season.
