You can’t hide facts in the age of the ‘net
When it became known that Dough Lynch, vice dean of the graduate school of education at the University of Pennsylvania, did not in fact have a doctorate as he claimed, the University slapped him with “sanctions”, but he kept his job. Once the media caught wind of the story, however, he was put on leave, and fast. After all, you don’t want someone without a doctorate determining who gets into a school tasked with handing them out, right?
OK, so poor initial response, but you would think after the near-miss on their first mistake U of Penn would be prepared for a full-on media blitz. Wrong! Check out this quote from an ABC News article by Colleen Curry explaining the crisis management tactic (if you can even call it that) now being employed:
Various UPenn university officials who spoke to the Philadelphia Inquirer about the situation refused to speak to ABC News today, including Stein, university president Amy Gutmann, and dean of the graduate school Andrew Porter. All three officials directed calls to the media relations department, which said in a statement that “the university now considers this matter closed.”
People, people, people…it’s the Internet! You can’t erase bad news! You can’t erase ANY news! Here’s our best advice for you, Penn officials – if you were deceived by Lynch, admit it, can him, announce your new plan to audit the educational background of potential hires, and move on with the job of education. If knowledge of his deceit went further up the chain, then you’ve got a deeper organizational problem going, and it’s time to clean house. Brutally simple, but the best crisis management often is.
Oh, and by the way, also consider canning whoever gave you the advice to issue that statement from the media relations department.
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/