Crisis Communications

Crisis Communications for Federal Investigation of a Public University

The board of regents for a mid-sized western university was concerned about expenses and fund raising conducted by certain executives of the university. Financial reporting was considered inadequate by regents and requests for detail were met with resistance. Eventually, university management became aware of a federal investigation into the behavior of executives at the university. Though unrelated to spending and fund raising practices at the university, the FBI probe targeted a top official in the school’s management.

Under political pressure, the regents chose to act preemptively and release the university executive targeted by the FBI. A regents’ investigation concluded there was sufficient evidence to fire the top official for cause under contract violations.

MooreThink was retained by the board of regents to manage an emerging crisis in the media. University fund raising and legislative appropriations were likely to be endangered by negative publicity unless proactive messaging and outreach were launched. MooreThink developed a strategy and talking points for the chair of the board of regents, media trained him and other principals, and tactically deployed a media relations campaign with selected targets for varying messages.

The results were that the university was able to build public support for the release of the executive prior to the public’s awareness of the federal investigation. (The executive was later indicted on a charge unrelated to his/her tenure at the university.) The chair of the board of regents, who had served as the main face and voice of the university’s independent investigation and firing of the individual, was commended throughout the state for his statesmanship. MooreThink completed the crisis work by facilitating flattering profiles of the regents’ chair in numerous state publications. Several journalists and political analysts suggested he was a probable candidate for the U.S. Senate based upon his comportment and management of the university’s crisis.

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