931: 3P

Stu A:

First, I would need to understand what the source for the foreign wire service report is and if that should be considered reliable. Honestly, I don’t understand how something as minor as that would have hit the U.S. newspapers, but I guess that is irrelevant for the purposes of this exercise. If the allegations hadn’t been proven true, I would communicate to all parties that we should assume he is innocent until it is proven otherwise. Considering the professor’s reputation, and all he has done for the school, students and the community, he deserves to be given the opportunity to respond to the allegations and rumors. Just because he was allegedly arrested for something, doesn’t mean he is guilty.

If I worked for the university and it was my job to handle this situation, I would start communicating with the people directly connected to the school first. According to the story on pg. 77-78, I would address the school newspaper and find out who authorized the headline “Dr. Whoa!” to be printed. Printing a headline like that relays to the school and the public that the professor is guilty of what he is being accused of. That is irresponsible journalism for any news agency, but it should not be tolerated coming from a student newspaper.  Second, I would contact the professor directly and let him know that the news has reached the school and the community and ask him if he would like the opportunity to address the situation. This comes with variables, however. If this is in fact a criminal case, he may or may not yet be back to the United States. Also, people who are charged with a crime almost never make any statements at the advice of their legal counsel. I would then reach out to the parents of the grad students and first ask if they were aware of the situation. I would then ask if the students are ok and if the school can offer any help. Depending on what the parents say, this could potentially shed some light on what happened or if there is even any truth to it. Considering this story is said to be set at a University in a “red state” that generally signifies conservatism. The professor is married to a woman, has three children, and is a reverend in his local church. According to the article, it sounds like the drugs being used was ecstasy or molly, which suggests sexual activity was going on. Clearly, it also suggests that the grad students are gay and again, in a conservative state, that may complicate the matter even further.

The stakeholders and financial donors should be contacted next and the statement given by the school is that they do not have the entire story yet and have not yet spoken to the Professor. Every effort will be made to support the professor, his family, and the community. The school is not taking any action until more information is obtained.

Stu B:

First of all, before communicating with all the stakeholders, I would try to contact the media which report the news and try to dig in where was the resource came out and for details. Even though this action cannot guarantee if the allegations are true or false, we could at least have some ideas. Then, I would contact Dr. Worthington’s wife and the families of the grate students to see if they have any clues. Even if they have no ideas about what is going on, and yes, the students did go to Europe with the professor, we can’t say he is guilty until we have evidence. Meanwhile, try to see if we can reach Dr. Worthington in Europe.

After all, I assumed that we can’t contact with Dr. Worthington since he might still be in Europe and have no idea what the situation is outside. After some investigation from the press and the families, I would suggest releasing a short statement to assert that we tried our best to contact related person in this case, before the university has further evidence for the allegations against Professor Worthington are true or false, based on what he had devoted to the school, the community, and the students, we won’t make any guess or comments for the situation until we have further information.

Second, for the students, since there were some students newspaper appears, the university also should have an announcement on to the students on its website or through an email saying that it might break the university ethics code to spread something that is under investigation and not right.

Last, for financial donors, the dean should hold a meeting with critical financial donors to listen to what they are concerning and to smooth their emotion by informing that the situation is still under investigation, even though we can’t reach Dr. Worthington right now, it doesn’t mean that he is in prison or guilty. It’s wiser to make any movement before we have more information and evidence about the case.

Reference:

Alan, Z. (2010). Crisis Communication: Theory and Practice. New York. PA: Taylor & Francis Group.