WVU and Heather Bresch: ‘PR Problem’ versus ‘PR Calamity’ May 1, 2008
We do Crisis Communications at Sprouse Consulting. We train companies on it, we are brought in to deal with it.
Piece of advice #1 to prospective clients with ‘PR Problems’…. DON’T turn a PR Problem into a PR Calamity.
Wow, should WVU ever have heeded that advice.
One of the more telling comments as I read through the pages and pages of Breschgate at WVU was the comment by WVU Communications Director Bill Case.
Now, I always found Bill to be pretty good in his job with Wise. But, his advice here was absolutely terrible. According to Veronica Nutt’s column in the Charleston Gazette:
Case said no timeline was placed on the business college officials, but “if someone is asked if they had a degree - if it takes more than a couple of hours to figure out - you have a PR problem.”
And, at this point is the point that someone should have said… let’s not turn this problem into a calamity.
Which is exactly what WVU did.
There should have been a weighing of future here.
At the now infamous October 15th meeting, they obviously felt they had one of two choices. Either conclude that there was enough evidence to grant Bresch the degree or either there wasn’t enough evidence to grant the degree.
But, someone there… someone who knew crisis communications, should have laid out the third.
There wasn’t enough information to come to a conclusion.
You know, the public respects politicians (and in this case, institutions) that say “I DON’T KNOW, BUT I AM GOING TO DO EVERYTHING IN MY POWER TO FIND OUT.”
In this case, did WVU really think the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette would simply say “OK” when they declared Bresch had a degree?
It sounded to me like they didn’t have enough evidence to make that conclusion.
So, you know, here’s a crazy thought. If you didn’t feel you had enough evidence (which they obviously didn’t) to make a decision. TELL THE TRUTH. Tell the public that you didn’t have enough evidence. The public is big boys and girls and while they wouldn’t be too happy that the state’s flagship institution’s recordkeeping was SO bad, they didn’t know if a prominent alumni had a degree, they would respect the fact that they were being told the truth.
And, Case’s PR ‘problem’, they minute they awarded that degree had ‘PR CALAMITY’ written all over it.
So, instead of the PR problem of not having complete records, they NOW have the PR Calamity of a major institution awarding a degree that wasn’t earned.
Holy smokes.
And, I feel bad for Heather Bresch. She obviously feels strongly she earned the degree. I don’t think she is just making it up. She felt she had a deal. But, as a top exec, she should know that deals like that need to be in writing or they aren’t deals.
But, it’s a fiasco of biblical proportions for WVU that will not end until someone’s (or multiple people) head(s) get lopped off.
The question is who? See tomorrow for more.
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13 Responses to “WVU and Heather Bresch: ‘PR Problem’ versus ‘PR Calamity’”
Vic….What are you saying!!!??? You think Heather Bresch believes she “earned” a graduate degree from WVU?? Mrs. Bresch isn’t stupid, nor is she likely to be forgetful at her age. She darned well knows that she DID NOT attend several classes and that she still received a piece of paper “saying” that she had a graduate degree.
Did she think that it was OK to obtain a degree in this manner, even though the other students probably had to attend class and take the exams. Did she think work experience counted for her missed classes? Wouldn’t we all like to have received our degrees by that method. Work, earn big money, don’t attend class, and still get a degree. Now who wouldn’t go for that plan!
This is a simple case of political influence gone WAY out of control. Mrs. Bresch knew that between her father and Mylan Puskar [and goodness knows who else at WVU and in Democratic politics],this was “arranged”.
The sad result of all this is that WVU’s reputation is lowered considerably. First, it was the whole “party school” image….and now this mess! Shame on all of those who had a hand in this! And Joe Manchin has to have played a significant role. Will anything happen to him as a result of it?? Well…..he’ll likely serve out his term and get Bob Byrd’s Senate seat. In the meantime, Senator Byrd, who is nothing more than a corpse at this point, will be wheeled around the Senate and propped up for publicity shots until Manchin’s term as governor ends. Then, if he is not dead beforehand, he’ll step down to give Manchin the spot. This is definitely politics in Dog Patch….er, I mean West Virginia!
Did you notice the difference in headlines between the Morgantown Post and the Charleston Gazette this morning. Post: “Faculty Dissent Grows”. Gazette: “Board Backs Garrison”. Is this a surprise ?
Who can see the Dominion Post article? They require a paid subscription to read their articles.
I’ve never seen another newspaper do this.
from an emailer…
Bresch knew darn well she didn’t have that degree, Vic - you are giving her too much benefit of the doubt.
OK, maybe she felt she was “granted” a degree from teh University, but she could not have felt as if she earned it. How many other students go talk to the leader of the program and get granted a waiver that they don’t have to take TEN credits.
You are being way too easy on her.
from an emailer…
Does Garrison REALLY believe that he is going to survive this scandal with the ONLY punishments being Sears and Lang getting demoted and ONLY makeing $150,000 and $200,000 lucrative teaching positions? What’s he smoking?
Oh, and I forgot the REAL punishment. Lang is ONLY going to get six months paid vacation to get himself acclimated to teaching again.
from an emailer.
Ol’ Broadway Joe was a little testy in his article with Tom Searls in today’s Charlston Gazette. How dare Searls ask the Governor tough questions? How dare anyone challenge King Joe and his court jester, Mike Garrison.
And, where did we get the spineless jellyfish we call a Board of Governors? OH… RIGHT… Joe apponited them. Imagine that.
This administration stinks. This BOG stinks. And, the fix is in. Garrison stays. Screw the alumni, screw the donors, screw the students and long live King Joe and his own personal handpuppet, WVU president Garrison.
from an emailer…
Vic - I think you are wrong to defend Bresch. She called Garrison to make this go away, Garrison sent his top people in to fix it, it was fixed and if it weren’t for the post-Gazette our spinless and lazy media in the state would have let them get away with it. Thank god the Pittsburgh paper doesn’t care (or probably even know) who joe manchin is, so they aren’t scared of him.
Why can’t Garrison produce his cell records for the key five days around that meeting. They are saying AT&T can’t get them? Hogwash. I can call AT&T today and order my records and they will be here tomorrow. But, for those five days the largest cell phone provider in the world can’t seem to find the president’s records. What a crock!
And, now why is Joe admitting to “wishing he handled it better?” If he didn’t call Garrison as he claims would he instead have called him? its odd he is apologizing for doing something he said he didn’t do.
They know what’s coming, garrison’s records will be released eventually and they will undoubtedly show that he talked to someon in the administration, even if its Pucchio, it shows Joe was involved.
Garrison’s isn’t the only head that should roll. Add Case and Macia to that list. They were there. They were complicit in this conspiracy to alter official state documents.
The phone records most certainly ARE attainable. Other state agencies have been able to get them when investigating employees suspected of wrongdoing.
Wow! People are jumping to all kinds of conclusions here? Why not just impeach George W. Bush?
This all happened under his watch!
As I predicted folks, the sacrificial lambs are being taken care of. Operation “Protect Future US Senator Joe” is going as per plan.
Do not forget Bob Wise has spoken as a character witness for Garrison, with his character I sure would want him to speak up for me.
To the point, the crisis PR people in this state do not know that they are accoutable. The press gives them a free pass and essentially there is only one party. So they are used to saying we can bs our press and it will die. They didn’t forecast that the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette would be different.
I have wondered just why David Hardesty was pushed out a couple of months earlier than his stated retirement date.
Could it be this calamity was coming down the pike several months before the October dates?? Was Garrison installed early because Manchin, Bresh, et al knew early on that she had fibbed to the SEC?
Maybe the dog did not eat earlier phone records.