By T. R. Shaw Jr.
The past few weeks have been a
roller coaster for those of us in Michigan.
We are enduring Penn State II as the Nasser sexual abuse debacle has
dominated both the local and national news, as it should. This is far worse than what happened at Penn
State and it’s not over yet.
The epicenter of all this is East
Lansing, Michigan, proud home to our nation’s first land grant college,
Michigan State University. Lately, the
school has become less known for sports and more known for a stream of abused
athletes, mostly female gymnasts, coming forth with gut-wrenching stories of
abuse at the hands of a university sponsored doctor, Larry Nasser.
At this point, this episode has
brought down the university president, athletic director and a few high-ranking
athletic representatives. It has also
forced the resignation of several members of the USA Gymnastics Board and a
tsunami of further resignations is likely forthcoming. Nasser has begun serving a 175 year sentence.
While most of us know the story; many
complaints were made against Nasser, none were taken seriously by MSU. As an active campus police investigation took
place, Nasser continued to work for both the school and USA Gymnastics for
several years and months with latitude and impunity. Through ignorance and indifference, young
people’s voices were not being heard or taken seriously. A major university and the Olympic movement
were too big to fail; something like that cannot happen at this level many
assumed.
The case went public when a Olympic Gold
Medal gymnast finally got her voice heard through a journalist at the
Indianapolis Star. Yes, the power of the
press had to be applied in this situation to affect change. After that, all Hell has broken loose and
finally, some resolution came for many victims who were powerless and unheard.
As a public relations practitioner
and journalist, I’ve been quite amazed at how MSU has handled, or failed to
handle this situation. MSU is known to
have an outstanding journalism program and has produced many top journalists
and public relations practitioners.
To
their credit, the student newspaper last week wrote an outstanding editorial
following the resignation of President Lou Ann Simon and laid out a brilliant
case for the future of “their” school, which demanded responsibility and
accountability. The student journalists
closest to this, put it all into perspective far better than anyone has yet.
So,
why then did the university fail so miserably in crisis communication? The comments which came out of the
administration and the board as this unfolded were insensitive, condescending,
and lacked any clear message that they were ahead of this situation, reassuring
their stake holders this would be dealt with in a professional and through
manner. They failed in very basic crisis
communication practices and are now suffering for it.
A
quote from the STATE NEWS editorial says it best: “As the
most well-known faces of our university, we expected you to acknowledge the
horrors that happened, but instead, we were left disappointed and concerned for
the future of the university you all claim to love…You sat at press
conferences, unprepared to talk about the largest scandal currently facing college
athletics.”
Honestly,
I don’t know what kind of plan they had in place or worked from, but the
perception was they were utterly unprepared to properly communicate
effectively. While they cannot change what happened or didn’t happen, there
could have been much better public response from the university.
Earlier,
NPR sports contributor and author, John U. Bacon, who sat through the Penn
State trials, commented that he was surprised this isn’t getting the national
outrage Penn State received during the Jerry Sandusky era. Bacon said what’s happening at Michigan State
is hundred times worse, and he’s right.
Part
of it may have been media fatigue from the endless Hollywood and celebrity
scandals such as Weinstein, Rose, Lauer, Cosby, etc. But, still that’s no excuse.
Likewise,
in this era of instant, 24-hour news and social media, the university could
have handled it much better, especially with communication experts in their
midst.
While
this tragedy continues to unfold, it is a textbook case of poor media planning,
wrong responses, and failure to send the right messages. I’m encouraged this episode was brought to
life by a journalist, especially in this era where most of the media are
maligned as “fake news.”
I’m
encouraged by student journalists rising above the noise to take a strong and
courageous stand through the power of the press, and the courage of 150 young
women finding their voice.
The
future of our nation is bright with young people of this caliber rising above
the status quo and bureaucracy and using their collective voice to affect institutional
change.
My
hope is all other institutions and organizations take the lessons learned from
this and become serious about a crisis communication plan. There is much to be learned from a
communication standpoint with this horrible event. The world is moving too fast to not get it
right the first time.
T. R. Shaw Jr. is CEO of Shaw Communication in
Battle Creek, Michigan. You can read his
blog, The Reluctant R(L)eader at www.read-mor.blogspot.com
