Virginia Tech Tragedy: Evaluating VT Web crisis communication plan

April 18th, 2007 Karine Joly 9 Comments

Inside Higher Ed is running this morning a must-read piece for communication professionals titled “Evaluating the Response.”

Written by Andy Guess, this article reviews the tragic events from a crisis communication standpoint, provides a link to the University Relations crisis communication plan (last updated in February 2002) used Monday, and offers some light on the challenges the VT Communication team faced that day:

The plan’s guidelines on contacting students during a crisis don’t appear to weigh the possibility of an impending disaster, suggesting publication in the student paper, The Collegiate Times, the Internet, e-mail, radio, fliers and even “mass meetings.” It continues, “Dedicated phone lines with taped messages can also be set up by Communications Network Services. A voice mail broadcast to all resident students can be issued by contacting Communications Network Services….”

As a result, the university had to improvise. “I would say [the guidelines] were adapted, because the crisis communication plan helps identify who should be at the table, where to meet, when to meet, how to meet,” said Mark Owczarski, director of news and information at Virginia Tech. “As soon as that team is convened, you have the sharing of information from all the parties engaged in that crisis.”

The plan, for instance, states that the “core crisis team” should first “designate a spokesperson,” suggesting the associate vice president for university relations. But on Monday, as Owczarski pointed out, there were more than a few officials speaking on behalf of Virginia Tech — from the president, Steger, up to Gov. Tim Kaine (through his own staff from Tokyo, where he was at the time) and President Bush during a news conference. “I do think you have to adapt to the situation at hand; that situation frankly changes hourly,” Owczarski said.

This article also highlights some of the people who have been criticizing VT crisis response and its website:

Some of those criticizing offer businesses that provide advice or services of the sort they say the university needed. Christopher Simpson, the CEO of SimpsonScarborough, a higher education branding and communications strategy firm, focused specifically on what he saw as a lackluster online response from the university. “There was very little information on that Web site for the first four to five hours,” said Simpson, who has advised colleges during public relations crises. “We know if you tried to call into Tech yesterday, most cell phones would not work. If I’m trying to call my son or daughter and can’t get them, the next place I’m going to try is the Web. So I think they failed in using the Web, which is your most important and valuable communication tool, certainly for the first six to seven hours of this crisis.”

As I explained in my first post about the tragedy, I wasn’t able to follow the unfolding of this crisis Monday morning, I posted what I retrieved after the facts — at 9:58AM, a short message alert on the homepage linking to a news page that I couldn’t retrieve –, so I’d be interested to find out more about what is referred as “very little information on that Web site” in the IHE piece.

Can anybody (Mr. Simpson, maybe, as he is a new reader of this blog) share more details with all of us?

9 Responses

  1. Sweet Girl says:

    I think it’s become really apparent how useful cell phones are in emergency situations. We have the amazing ability to communicate with one another in seconds.

  2. BillyBob says:

    Wow, you didn’t waste much time in capitalizing on a tragedy for your personal blogging fodder, did you? Six posts and counting…

    Don’t you think a respectful pause might have been more appropriate?

  3. We learn with midst feelings what has happened to Virginia Tech, our sister institution.
    May th good LORD be our guardian through this difficult period.

  4. Karine Joly says:

    Thank for your comments Sweet Girl, BillyBob and Asamoah Barnes Richard.

    BillyBob, I understand.

    This might look like a lot to an outsider, but what you call a “personal blog” serves a community composed of people working in universities and colleges (including Virginia Tech Web Communication Director who asked me to relay a message to his colleagues in other institutions – #5 of my 6 posts).

    I might be wrong, but I think one of the ways to honor the victims’ memory is to do what we can to help prevent this type of tragedy on other campuses.

    I blog.

  5. Anonymous says:

    Hazardous plants and a lot of cities use civil alert systems (sirens) for warnings of various types. These sirens can have various tones to indicate various types of emergencies, i.e., tornado warning, bomb threat, terorist warning, or need for lockdown. These sirens can have various sounds, i.e., steady siren, pulsating, wayling, etc. Each sound having a specific meaning that is communicated (training) to all those that could be involved in case of an emergency and what action they should take depending on which siren type is used.

  6. Karine –

    Thanks for the ongoing posts on crisis communication. One thing I’d like to add is the importance of continually examining your crisis communications plan because of the continuous advancements in technology. I know many schools took a close look at their crisis management planning after 9/11. Think about how much the technology has changed since then. There are so many more tools today to get the word out than there were 5 years ago. I can see a day in the not-to-distant future when “the device formerly known as the cell phone” makes always on, always connected a reality, and this will make instantaneous communication with our campuses possible.

  7. Norma Carol says:

    Communications are so important and we have so much available in this day and age, I am glad you are taking a look at possibilities. Other schools will be looking for ideas.

  8. Karine Joly says:

    Great suggestions, Anonymous and Mark!

  9. Just a quick note in defense of the posts on the Va Tech. tragedy.

    Discussion of the communication response to this horror is exactly what the readers of this blog are looking for.

    Thanks for providing the forum for discussion, as well as the information you share.

Got a question or comment?