The Scoop: After disastrous fall, Harvard changes policy on public statements

Over the past few months, we have seen a number of upheavals in American colleges and universities related to institutional responses to the war in Gaza. In the wake of student protests and changes in Harvard’s leadership, the esteemed university is implementing a new policy of silence on issues that do not directly impact the “core function” of the school.

In a CNN report, Harvard said it has a responsibility to defend the standing and integrity of the university, but university officials must avoid commenting on issues that do not directly concern the school. In an interview with The Harvard Gazette, Noah Feldman, co-chair of Harvard’s Institutional Voice Working Group, which is tasked with reviewing and verifying public statements made by university leadership, said the group’s primary mission is to ensure that Harvard maintains its position of academic freedom and independence.

“Ultimately, we believe this approach is actually more inclusive of the entire community,” Feldman said. “We have heard loud and clear from many stakeholders that when we occasionally speak up on certain global or national issues, many people feel that we ignore other issues. On some issues, our community or the world is divided in such a way that no matter what we say, we will create controversy.”

Why is it important: In December, we published an article outlining the crisis communications lessons PR professionals can draw from Harvard’s mishandling of information about the Gaza war. Harvard appears to have put some of these lessons into practice with its new Institutional Voice Working Group.

While many people want to know where an organization stands on certain issues, that doesn’t mean every institution has to comment on every topic. This is one of the primary functions of the Institutional Voice Working Group – keeping Harvard focused on its mission of providing a first-class academic environment.

In times of crisis, it is important to reaffirm your organization’s mission. Harvard is doing just that, emphasizing the fact that it is an academic institution and that will be the focus of its statements.

Most frequently read by the editor:

• You probably use Google Search a decent amount. You may have even used it to find this article. However, according to a report by The Verge, Google has failed to fully convey the truth about how its search function works, which could have a major impact on the SEO of countless companies. The set of leaked data shows what Google collects from websites and searches, and also provides subtle clues about what Google values ​​in SEO. Although Google is yet to respond to the leak, it is a serious matter. When you communicate on behalf of an organization, you don’t have to reveal trade secrets in every message. But tell the truth and you’ll find out whether Google was outright lying or simply not sharing the full picture. Either way, it’s a blow to the search engine giant’s reputation.
• Put on your dancing shoes, the Olympic Games are almost here! Nike took the joke literally, releasing breakdancing shoes ahead of the sport’s first inclusion in the Paris Olympics this summer. According to GQ, work on the new shoe, Nike Jam, took seven years and was created under the supervision of the Nike Sports Research Laboratory. While this may seem like a story about a cool new shoe, there’s more to it. A few weeks ago, Ragan wrote about a new change at Nike following a series of layoffs and communications changes that have seen a return to the emphasis on the innovations that made the company famous in the first place. It seems that’s exactly what Nike is doing at a time when sports are in the spotlight.
• The federal government has reached an agreement with an IT recruitment company that published a racist job advertisement. According to NPR, the post read: “Only natural-born U.S. citizens (white) who live within 60 miles of Dallas, Texas (do not share with candidates).” Apart from the fact that this is illegal and reprehensible behavior, there are also lessons to be learned about communication. First, if you hire people who would say something like this, it’s time to do some soul searching. Second, make sure you check every single thing that goes out of the house with your name on it, and make sure all editor’s notes are removed. Whether you like it or not, it is a reflection of your organization. Cleaning up such a mess takes a lot more work than preventing a crisis.

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his free time, he enjoys Philadelphia sports and organizing trivia events.

COMMENT