"UND Apologizes For Reporters' Ejection During Scott Pruitt Visit"

"A spokesman for [University of North Dakota] apologized to the Herald after reviewing footage of a UND police officer ejecting its reporters from a public university property.

Peter Johnson, UND’s top public affairs official, delivered an apology in person to two Herald reporters at the newspaper’s downtown offices on Tuesday. Journalists Andrew Haffner and Andrew Hazzard were covering an Aug. 9 visit by Scott Pruitt, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, to UND’s Energy and Environmental Research Center when a UND officer asked them to cross the street and leave the property.

“After looking at the body-cam footage, it’s clear to me, as I suspected, that the reporters should not have been asked to leave the university property,” Johnson said on Thursday. “I thought it was unfortunate that it went that way, and I apologized on behalf of the university for that.”

UND President Mark Kennedy is aware of the ejection, Johnson said, and shares the same opinion of the events. "

Sam Easter reports for the Grand Forks Herald August 17, 2017.