Penn State University is on track to spend over $7 million on public relations in wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. The Nittany Lions had hired Ketchum and Kekst immediately following the announcement of the arrest of Sandusky and most recently announced that Edelman and LaTorre Communications would be on board to help the university during the upcoming trial. That’s a lot of money and signals a giant effort that I’m not sure will successfully support the brand that is Penn State.
It is no surprise to me, a college graduate and a mother of two graduates of a top flight university, that Penn State is having a problem with transparency and communication. For some reason, major universities, even those like Penn State that have a College of Communications with an Advertising/Public Relations Department, are ill equipped to handle their own public relations. They fundamentally don’t believe in transparent communications. I’m not sure if that’s because the infrastructure for a major university is convoluted or if it’s because they are staffed with academics who haven’t had real world experiences. I’m also almost positive that the powers at Penn State have never consulted with their own professors on how to handle a crisis. They probably haven’t even considered it.
Here’s what all entities need to remember about a crisis. The time to handle a crisis is when you don’t have a crisis. Every business entity including a major Big Ten university, needs to have a crisis communications plan. The business/university also needs to have trained professional public relations staff that can handle initial communications and set the plan in motion. The p.r. people need to have direct access to the University President and Board of Directors and to be included in the decision making process about the crisis.
It seems to me, that those in power in this crisis like others (the BP oil spill comes to mind) were so consumed with the issue at hand that they never thought how it would affect absolutely everything the university does. If a plan was in place, it would detail that above all you should be honest and transparent in your communications. Don’t speculate and don’t talk about things that you don’t know anything about. Show compassion for victims and show remorse for your mistakes.
The child abuse scandal at Penn State is truly sad for the victims of this horrific tragedy. And now it’s even more tragic in that a major university is showing it doesn’t know much about effective communications in a time of trouble.
