Penn State's PR Crisis

While this past week has been a series of unfortunate events for Penn State and its students, the school and its current situation has unfortunately been a text book illustration of what not to do when dealing with crisis PR. It's hard to believe that such a huge institution such as Penn State had no plan for the public relations crisis that blew up as the report recently went public. What bothers me most is the fact that this school had so much time to prepare for something like this to go public. Most crisis situations in PR are considered crises because the client or institution did not have time to develop response strategies or construct standby statements-- in Penn State's case, this is false. Because the sexual abuse scandals have occurred over time and were brought to the attention of the University and its athletic program, Penn State had more than enough time to develop a PR crisis management plan in the case of it leaking to the press. Due to the fact that Penn State did not develop a plan, this once prestigious and reputable school is extremely far from gaining control of the crisis that has overtaken the news/media.

Even after the story had leaked and there were reported riots taking place on Penn States' campus, the school's representatives did a poor job of communicating to the public. According to a source, the press conference that was held by the Vice President of the school's board of trustees was extremely "cold and corporate" rather than recognizing the emotional impact that this scandal has caused for many people. Penn State's response to the crisis was so poor that it was actually compared to the term "whiplash" on the public.

There is too much to say on what Penn State "should have done" in this situation. However, one thing COULD have been implemented and that is a crisis management plan, which would have ensured that action would have been taken immediately by being honest and open to the public.