Hot Topic: Saint Mary’s University starts the school year in the media spotlight

An Instagram video depicting a controversial frosh week chant promoting underage, non-consensual sex has put Saint Mary’s University in a negative spotlight in media outlets across the country.

The hits kept coming in the weeks following when a former SMU student decided to hold a news conference to return his two degrees.  Plus, a former professor said that she believes there is a history of sexism at the school and former frosh leaders said that they had complained about the sexist chant in previous years.

In an example of model media relations (for the most part), Saint Mary’s University staff have handled the issue efficiently and appropriately. Though reputation damage is inevitable in such a widespread and shocking news story, Saint Mary University’s ability to respond immediately and with the right message is admirable.

The day after the video surfaced online, Saint Mary’s University president Colin Dodds appeared on CTV’s Atlantic News at 6pm and also distributed a media release with four important points:

1. The president’s apology on behalf of the university
2. The university’s acceptance of responsibility for the issue
3. The steps that the university administration will take to ensure it doesn’t happen again
4. Disciplinary action will be taken against the student leadership involved

Although Dodds did a good job of quickly and carefully handling media attention, it’s questionable whether the school’s student president should have been acting as a spokesperson, especially because he resigned from his position the day after speaking at a news conference.

Dodds did do an on-camera interview, but it was Jared Perry, the school’s student president, who became recognizable throughout media coverage of this unfortunate event.

Good media relations means taking control of an issue that can quickly become out of control when the media gets involved. SMU’s quick response time, carefully thought out message and accessibility to the media allowed the school to come out of this issue bruised, but not totally beaten.

Hot Topics is a new series of blog posts written by Centennial Corporate Communications & Public Relations students.  The posts examine issues in the news from a PR perspective.