Crisis Communications in Higher Education

Full Transcript

[00:00:00] Jaime Hunt: Hi. I'm a higher ed CMO and I have a confession to make when people ask me who I admire in higher education. One of the very first names that comes to mind for me is Christie Jackson. Christie is somebody I've known since 2010, and she is the guru when it comes to crisis communication, issues management, reputation management.

[00:00:22] She's Absolut. Brilliant, and I am so glad that she was able to carve out some time to talk with us about her experiences. Um, she has been through just about every type of crisis that you can experience and has so much wisdom and insight for us. So I hope you enjoy this episode.

[00:00:57] Welcome to Confessions of a Higher Ed cmo, the [00:01:00] podcast design for Higher Education marketers. I'm your host, Jamie Hunt, and I am so excited to have this opportunity to share insights and inspiration with Confessions of a Higher Ed cmo. I'm designing a different kind of podcasting experience. With each episode, I'll be bringing in a guest for a deep dive into the challenge.

[00:01:19] And joys we all face in higher education marketing. After each episode, you can join the conversation on Twitter by using the hashtag higher ed cmo. I would love to see this become like a book club, but for a podcast. And be sure to follow me on Twitter at at Jamie Hunt i m c, that's j A i m E H U N T I M C for more opportunities to connect.

[00:01:50] So I am so excited to have with me today one of my favorite people and perhaps the most talented crisis communicator in higher education, if nothing [00:02:00] else, the most experienced crisis communicator in higher education. Christie Jackson from University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Christie, how are 

[00:02:07] Christy Jackson: you?

[00:02:07] How are you? I am well, Jamie. I am excited to be with one of my favorite people in the whole wide world, and the person I consider the foremost expert on everything, higher education, comms, and market. 

[00:02:17] Jaime Hunt: Except for crisis, cuz that's definitely you. . I don't want 

[00:02:21] Christy Jackson: that title to be honest with you. Fair enough, fair enough.

[00:02:24] Neither do I, . You can 

[00:02:26] Jaime Hunt: keep that one. Um, so Christie, uh, who I have known for for many years now, what, like, um, 13 years, something like that. Um, Christie has been through it, but before we get into what Christie has been through and her advice about crisis communication, tell us a little bit about your background and where you have been and that might give our listeners a little clue.

[00:02:47] Christy Jackson: What you've experienced. Yeah. They can chart with me. So I have been in higher ed my whole career, uh, which was by choice. It's what I discovered I wanted to do in grad school when I was working as a [00:03:00] graduate assistant in, uh, academic advising capacity. And I realized that I loved that so much. And surely higher ed must need communication people too.

[00:03:10] So I went with great joy to my graduate advisor and I said, I know what I wanna do. And he said, what? And I said, be in higher ed administration. And he said, why ? And I said, cuz it seems really fun and rewarding and it has been. So. Upon graduating from graduate school, I started my career at Virginia Tech Clue number one.

[00:03:31] Clue number one started at Virginia Tech and then I went to Radford University, which may not be as, um, obvious of a clue number two, but there is a little bit of, of some stories there. And then I went to Sweet Borough College, so clue number three, . And then about six years ago, I came to UNC Charlotte, where I have been ever since.

[00:03:54] And. Fortunately, or unfortunately depend I guess on where you, where you set, I have [00:04:00] had crisis, um, of some capacity, uh, at every institution I've been in. So each has offered a different kind of learning opportunity for me in my career. 

[00:04:10] Jaime Hunt: To say that you have experienced a great deal of crises in your career is a bit of an understatement.

[00:04:16] Can you tell us a little bit about some of the crises that you have had to navigate? 

[00:04:22] Christy Jackson: Very early in my career, I think the world probably remembers with me what happened on April 16th, 2007, when at the time it was the worst mass shooting in modern US. History took place on Virginia Tech's campus, taking the life of 32 people, and, uh, wounding physically many more and emotionally and mentally, thousands.

[00:04:44] That was sort of trial by fire. I got thrown into the very, very deep end of the pool. I certainly was not in a decision making capacity in that position. I was in a tactician capacity, but was as bizarre as [00:05:00] this sounds. Incredibly fortunate to be in that capacity because I learned a whole lot very quickly.

[00:05:05] Fortunate to learn from Larry Hiker and Jeff Douglas. , um, Michael Kaiser, who unfortunately is no longer with us at Regina Tech, um, and really was truly a transformative experience for me, both professionally and personally. So, obviously saw that tech had a few other things that happened after that shooting, but certainly the shooting was what I was most involved in.

[00:05:28] I was, um, one of the first into the j uh, when it opened and remained there for, for many, many. , um, and then was at Tech for a few years and went to Radford University where you and I met, and while I was at Radford, several issues that popped up. But our biggest crisis while I was there was when the student who was enrolled part-time at Radford for reasons that will never be known, stole vehicle.

[00:05:58] I drove it to Virginia Tech and [00:06:00] murdered a Virginia Tech police officer Officer. and that set off a whole chain of events, um, for Virginia Tech obviously, but also for us at Radford. My next stop was at Sweet for College, which again, various issues that sort of popped up, but the biggest and most well known crisis there was when the board there decided to, um, announce closure of the college.

[00:06:29] So that was a brand new kind of crisis that was not. So, you know, the threat of violence or harm, uh, purely, I wanna say purely reputational, but also one that came with many effects for a lot of people. One, that there wasn't a whole lot of sympathy for, uh, when the announcement was made. And we can talk more about that.

[00:06:49] And then left Sweet Briar. And for reasons that are probably quite obvious in what I just said, after the negotiation was made to remain open [00:07:00] under new. , I came to UNC Charlotte Hoya. Again, we had a variety of issues, uh, as one has in an urban institution in a, in a big city. But then on, uh, April 30th, 2019, we had a gunman who opened fire in a classroom in our Kennedy building, uh, killing two students, Reed Parlier and Riley Howell, and, uh, injuring four more physically, again, mentally, emotionally.

[00:07:31] many, many more. Uh, and that shooting was actually brought to an end when Riley Howell tackled the gunman, um, ultimately given his life in the process. Uh, so that was at that point. The next biggest crisis I had faced. And then with you and so many of our colleagues throughout higher ed, we have all navigated the never ending it seems crisis of the pandemic, uh, and all the chaos that that has brought to all of us since 2020.

[00:07:59] Though I'm knocking [00:08:00] on wood that some of that is beginning to abate in big ways. Um, so yeah, that has sort of been my, my journey with my crisis signposts and. 

[00:08:12] Jaime Hunt: Crises are varied, but there's a lot of, um, life safety crises that you've mentioned, which are, I imagine. . Well, I've experienced some myself. Um, when I was at Winston-Salem State about four weeks after I got there, um, a young man was killed on campus during homecoming and the shooter was at large.

[00:08:36] Um, so we had a lockdown and uh, had to handle that. And we also had a student when I was there who was murdered at a party at Wake Forest. . Um, and so, you know, got into that e ooc there, so those life safety ones are really, really hard and emotional moments. How have you sort of maintained your calm and [00:09:00] your sort of ability to navigate those and kind of set aside the emotion to do the work that you needed to do in those situations?

[00:09:10] Christy Jackson: So it's interesting. . I very vividly remember, I'll take you back to take you forward. I very vividly remember standing in the media room upstairs at the vet school at Virginia Tech, uh, on April 16th. And you know, and it's, to me it's also so different how technology and social media has changed crisis, which is a whole other conversation that is, but it ties to what I'm saying.

[00:09:38] We had rolled out our television set and put it on the drafting table. , I mean really we had to go find one and put the, like the bunny ears up because it was 2000, you know, nine. And it just, it was so different even that short time ago. And we put the TV up and I can distinctly remember standing there and it was the very first press conference and we had [00:10:00] heard rumors that there were maybe nine or 10 people dead.

[00:10:04] Cuz again, social media. Facebook was just coming online then, and we had AOL Instant Messenger and I was getting some information from friends that were watching the news and relaying it to me in my office cuz we were on lockdown. So we thought maybe nine or 10. And I can remember standing there watching the news with my colleagues watching the press conference and Charles speakers saying There are 32 people dead.

[00:10:32] And it was beyond our wall. . But in that moment, I truly, professionally, emotionally, I felt something switch inside of me because up until that moment, I would've told you I was a crier. I would've told you that I would've never been able to handle something like that. But in that moment, I understood with deep clarity that we as communicators [00:11:00] had a role to play and we had to do what was necess.

[00:11:04] and I also, quite frankly, Jamie felt very fortunate there was something I could do. Mm-hmm. , I could do my job. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. When you had what felt like literally the world wanting to help and there was nothing most people could do, I could do my job and every day since then, that sort of, it's, it really is com compartmentalization, you know, that if you truly allow yourself to fill the magnitude of it in the moment you would fall.

[00:11:31] You would fall apart. You would fall apart from your own grief, you would fall apart from the grief that you were seeing around you. For me, it really is this obligation that I feel as, as a communication practitioner, that what we do matters so much in a crisis. And I don't say that arrogantly. I almost view it as like the sacred oath.

[00:11:54] Yeah. And I focus on that like in the middle of a crisis, I can do my. , [00:12:00] I can, I can help by doing my job. And I think that is what has kept me sane during all of it, is that I look at my colleagues and I look at our students and I look at our families and they are depending on us, even though they don't realize, maybe they're depending on us, they're depending on us to make sense of the chaos.

[00:12:19] Mm-hmm. , mm-hmm. . And, and so I just, I really do focus on that in that moment, if that makes 

[00:12:26] Jaime Hunt: sense. I feel that same thing like that, that switch that's flipped. Yeah. You feel it, 

[00:12:32] Christy Jackson: you feel it flipped. 

[00:12:32] Jaime Hunt: Yeah. And we had a, um, a stabbing that happened right outside my office, uh, when I was at Winston-Salem State.

[00:12:40] And I remember having like this, we got the lockdown notification in there was a issue with it. The campus police accidentally left the header that it was a gunman, um, lu on campus. And I had a moment. Seeing like all the cops running in the direction of my building and my office door was the first door that you would encounter if [00:13:00] someone came into the building and it had to be manually locked.

[00:13:02] It couldn't be locked with like a, a key or with that, the lockdown procedures. And I had this moment of like tiny bit of panic and then it was just like, yep, nope, you have to roll into the job. Cuz there are people all over this campus who are terrified right now. And it is your job to help them get through this situation.

[00:13:26] Hey all. I hope you're enjoying this episode of Confessions of a Higher Ed C M O. I wanna take a moment to thank my friends at mindpower who are making season two of this volfi podcast. Possible. Mindpower is a full service marketing and branding firm celebrating nearly 30 years of needle moving, thought provoking, research, fueled creative, and.

[00:13:46] Mindpower is woman founded and owned, W B E N C, certified nationally. Recognized and serves the social sector, higher education, healthcare, nonprofits, and more. The MINDPOWER team is made up of strategists, [00:14:00] storytellers, and experienced creators. From market research to brand campaigns to recruitment to fundraising, the agency exists to empower clients, amplify brands, and help institutions find a strategic way forward.

[00:14:12] You can learn more about their work in the world by heading on over to Mind Power Inc. That's m I n D P O W E R I N c.com. And be sure to tell the crew that Jamie sent you their way. 

[00:14:26] Christy Jackson: Yep. And it is. And it's your job. . I don't, for one second. Compare what we do for a living. Do what police officers and fire firefighters and EMTs and doctors and healthcare providers do.

[00:14:38] I don't. That is a whole level of helping that blows my mind. But we also have to, even if it's digitally, we have to run toward it too, a little bit. Mm-hmm. . And we have to lean into it in ways that perhaps other professions, you know, we don't get to await further orders. We are the orders. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's like, well, [00:15:00] no, I, I couldn't wait to see what happens next.

[00:15:02] I have to go, cuz I have to help chart what happens next. So, and that's, you know, what I've told my teams is what you do every day matters. And it matters the, I mean, it matters the most then, but what you do every day builds to the success that you can have in a crisis. If that makes. , 

[00:15:21] Jaime Hunt: I, I told my, um, my number two, who I just found out today is got my old job at, at Miami, which I'm so happy for her.

[00:15:30] But I always told her that I always felt like it was important to be the calmest person in the room. That we don't have the luxury of being panicked or a. , even if we don't know what we're doing right. Like with that shooting four weeks in, I didn't know anyone. I didn't know the protocol. I didn't know how to even, I hadn't yet been trained on any systems, but you just have to do and that's your job.

[00:15:55] So I just think it's really, really important for us to remember that we have to [00:16:00] project that feeling of calm and not everybody in the rooms that we're in is calm. Has that been your experience? 

[00:16:08] Christy Jackson: Absolutely. Absolutely. I think sometimes we have to be the center of the storm, um, because we have to be rational to gather the information.

[00:16:18] We have to be rational to process the information. We have to be rational to figure out what people need. We ha, I mean, we have to be, because if we, and I say this and have, we all had that moment, and I would even call it, you know, not being calm, but when you get to that stressed out moment where you're just like, oh, oh my gosh.

[00:16:37] But yeah, I think people, I think people also underestimate how folks are gonna react in a crisis. You can be very, very, very good at your job, any job, and still not necessarily be built for that level of crisis. Yeah. Um, no matter what you do it, I think it's leading. Leading in normal circumstances is a little [00:17:00] different than.

[00:17:01] In a, in a crisis circumstance, and I would even argue, leading in a crisis circumstance varies by what the crisis is. Oh, for sure. When you have quite literally life and death situations, that affects people very differently. It affects people very differently based on their own personal histories and past traumas and.

[00:17:20] people just show up differently in those moments. Yeah, yeah. 

[00:17:23] Jaime Hunt: Having gone through so many difficult crisis situations, what are some of the lessons that you've taken away from those experiences? 

[00:17:32] Christy Jackson: Comms matters, . Um, it, it is, you know, I think, I think one of the things I learned, and I can't even tell you at what point I learned it, but it is one of my sort of guideposts that I try to follow, at least internally as.

[00:17:49] in a crisis is you have to substitute your expectations with the expectations of your audience is, which I know seems so obvious because what do we do in any calm situation? We [00:18:00] think about our audience and we do an analysis, and what do they need and what do they want? And in a crisis, I think sometimes you forget that a little bit, and I think it's also sometimes in a crisis and maybe even more so in issues when you're sort of quote Hamilton in the room where it happens,

[00:18:17] and you have all the dots connected. I think it's very easy to forget that other people don't know what you know. Mm-hmm. . 

[00:18:23] Jaime Hunt: Yes. The cursive knowledge. 

[00:18:25] Christy Jackson: Correct. And it's like, so you have a tendency sometimes if you're not really thinking about it, to give out messages that may be incomplete and that may cause additional confusion.

[00:18:37] Mm-hmm. . Um, I think the other thing we learned and we learned it especially here, uh, in a very positive. is that crisis is not the first time your audiences should be hearing from you as a leader, as an institution, I think your success in a crisis really is dependent on sort of the social capital you've already built through communication and [00:19:00] the trust you've already built with your audiences.

[00:19:02] Uh, I think sometimes leaders have a tendency to sort of have this, well, because I said it, people should believe it because I said so and I, that gets thrown out the window in a crisis. If you have not, I. frequently. You gotta show up in the little moments so that they'll believe you when you show up in the big moments.

[00:19:17] Mm-hmm. and I, I think that's true. Um, I think you have to have, you have to have already proven yourself to your audiences that you are trustworthy and that you are reliable long before a crisis hits where you're gonna be in a world of trouble. Yeah. Uh, I don't know if you have experienced that as well.

[00:19:37] Jaime Hunt: Well, I think that, that in an issues management capacity, I think. Something I saw at our previous institution was, um, the, the chancellor at that institution was under scrutiny for something that he had said in a media outlet. And he fortunately had a really good relationship with the student body, and so [00:20:00] he had a town hall and was able to be very disarming and authentic and genuine and sort of squish all of that.

[00:20:09] But I think if he had. Had the credibility that came with being very visible on campus, coining to all these student events, taking selfies with the students, inviting them to his house, inviting them to on campus interactions with him. I think it would've just been seen as inauthentic and that those moments of inauthenticity can really crush you where it's, you're just saying, what I, you think I want to hear and not.

[00:20:40] What's actually true. 

[00:20:43] Christy Jackson: I agree. And I would even piggyback on that to say too, I think this is a mistake that people make in issues management especially, but certainly in crisis too, is people believe you can just say it and that's it. And it's not about what you say, it's about what you do. Mm [00:21:00] mm-hmm. . And I think you have to, to have a plan to do before you can have a plan to.

[00:21:07] um, because eventually if you don't walk the walk, you're gonna get called out, called out on it. Um, and I said, I think you see that frequently, even. I mean, pick a national crisis or topic and you see this stuff and it just rings so hollow because there was no action before that bears it out and you know, there's not gonna be any action after, you know, here at unc.

[00:21:32] before the shooting ever happened, we had started our crisis communication planning research process before the shooting had ever happened several years before. And honestly, one of the things our research really showed us with our campus was, you're great at telling me if, you know there's a clear ACT report that I need to know about, or clear act defense, you're great at telling me if there's, you know, a tornado warning, but there's other stuff [00:22:00] happening on campus.

[00:22:01] that's just weird. That perhaps is not a threat to me, but I'd like to know what's going on. Prime example was shortly after I arrived, um, and it, we had a body that was found in a drainage ditch on campus, not related to anyone on the university. It was unfortunately, a man who was unhoused and he.

[00:22:26] Believed overdosed. And, and he, he died in, in, in that drainage ditch, and no one found him until days later. However, there was a coroner's van at the front gate on campus, which raises eyebrows. Students were interested. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Students were interested. Faculty and staff were interested, and at the time we had no official channel that wasn't a police owned.

[00:22:53] or a chancellor level message that said, Hey y'all, here's what's going on. And so [00:23:00] one of our key takeaways and one we stood up pretty quickly was something called a niner notice, which we are still working to perfect it, but it essentially filled that, that gap for our audiences. This is not a life-threatening situation, but it's something you probably need to know about, and if you don't read it, you're not in danger.

[00:23:19] We don't use text messages for it. We use email. we use, you know, social media, but you should know, and I fully believe with all of my heart and soul that that program and the way we show it up with our campus on the little things leading up to the really big thing on April 30th, is what allowed us to navigate that crisis the way we did, because I believe we had built enough credibility with our audiences at that.

[00:23:50] that they understood that what we said was the truth. That we were gonna do what we said we were gonna do, we were gonna follow through. And that our care for them [00:24:00] was genuine because we had, we, we were, we had listened before, we were listening now. Um, and I really do believe that that sort of goodwill and social capital and trust helped carried us completely, carry us that we weren't starting from scratch.

[00:24:15] with our audiences. Mm-hmm. , that's 

[00:24:17] Jaime Hunt: really insightful and really helpful I think for listeners. Can you tell me a little bit about where you were and, and what you thought and what your first actions were when you got that first phone call on April 30th? 

[00:24:31] Christy Jackson: Sure. So I was teaching . It was my first semester teaching as a matter of fact.

[00:24:39] We had just finished, um, the lesson for the day. It was the last class before exams and I was getting ready to start the student's portfolio reviews with them, which is a one-on-one review. We were gonna do that in an office around the corner while they had an assignment to work on. And right as I was getting ready to walk out the door, uh, to go set up for the first student to [00:25:00] come see me, I got a text message from our social media manager at the time, Brandon Kirkley, and he said, , I'm seeing something weird on social that there may be a shooter on campus, and I texted him back.

[00:25:15] I said, Brandon, I'm sure it's a, somebody probably has an umbrella over their shoulder. I'm sure it's a mistake. I said, but let me call Chief Baker and I'll message you back. So I stepped out in the hall, shut the door behind me, told the students, I said, don't open the door. I'm gonna step out and make a phone call.

[00:25:32] Don't open the door for anyone but me. Not alarming at all. . , you know, and they kinda looked at me and said, okay. Stepped out in the hall called Chief Baker. He answered on the first ring, and I could tell the way he answered the phone. Oh no. And I said, all I said to him, is it, I just said, is it true? He said, Christie, I said, is it true?

[00:25:52] And he said, it's true. I'm en route. I said, ten four. And I hung up the phone and I walked back in. I knocked on the door, [00:26:00] they let me back in. I walked in. I said, there is a gunman on campus. We are getting ready to go into a lock. , I need you to turn off your cell phones. I need you to turn off your laptops, turn off the lights and go get on the floor in the back of this classroom and hide.

[00:26:16] And so we did. And the nine alert came through saying to run, hide, fight. And we hid in the back of our classroom together for however many minutes. I knew I had not heard gunfire, I knew. . Um, once they hit that button for the lockdown that we were locked down, that if the gunman was not in the building, he was not gonna get in the building cuz the one button locked down.

[00:26:42] So I called chief back and he answered again. And I said, do you have him? He says, yes. I said, okay, well then I'm gonna go to work. And I hung the phone and I told my students that I couldn't tell them much, but I could [00:27:00] tell them they were. and that I needed them to call their families and tell them they were safe.

[00:27:05] And then I needed them to open their laptops back up and get on social media and tell me what they were seeing. Wow. Wow. Um, so they, they went to their laptops. I went to the podium. I, Chris goer at that point, I, he had called and he said, do you have the alerts? And I said, I have the alerts. And so for the next hour and a half, two hours, , I basically was doing the alerts and the crisis comes out of my lockdown classroom until Chris and a SWAT team came and retrieved me, and, uh, went back to the JK and my team got there and we sort of, you know, put our plan in action.

[00:27:49] But I mean, honestly, Jamie, what went through my head, it was, again, it was that. . It was, you felt it. And I, I don't know if you feel like this, I, I've described it too as [00:28:00] like, it's almost like this Tetris game suddenly forms in my head and I know exactly where the all the pieces need to go. And it is like laser focus.

[00:28:10] It's like, okay, we need to do this, this, these are our first priorities. Life, health, safety, life, health, safety. Do this, do this. And then you're also running that, okay, this is gonna come next. We need to be thinking about this. It is my first. I mean, my first thought was, honestly, my first thought was, I'm not going home for a very long time.

[00:28:29] Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . Um, and I'm already tired. Mm-hmm. , I think that, you know, and then there was just fear. It was fear of the unknown. It was, you knew it was bad, you didn't know how bad it was. Mm-hmm. , you know, obviously my level of bad was pretty bad based on past experiences, so there. many silent prayers as I was in that classroom.

[00:28:53] Please, God, don't let it be that bad again. And just heartbreak. I mean, heartbreak on a level that is [00:29:00] really hard to describe if you haven't been 

[00:29:01] Jaime Hunt: through it. Yeah, it's the potential. It's the students on the cusp of their futures. It's awful. And I wonder if your experience having been in a classroom when this happened, and God forbid you ever experienced this again, but if that informs a little bit of how, now maybe you have even more empathy for how faculty might feel during a lockdown in a teaching situation.

[00:29:29] Christy Jackson: It was terrifying. It was Terri. I mean, it wasn't, I had the benefit. Of sort of knowing what to expect. I, you know, and I was able to prepare my students for that. This is what it's gonna look like when the SWAT team arrives. This is what's gonna happen next. This, you know, so that the ter So it wasn't scary for me in the, I also, I'd been through it before.

[00:29:54] I, again, I knew I hadn't heard gunshots. I knew we were not in physical danger. I knew we weren't. [00:30:00] Um, but the terror hit me after. the terror hit me after. Um, and it really hit me when I went back in that classroom again, because I'll tell you, Jamie, quite honestly, you look around and you go, what would I have done if it had been here?

[00:30:19] Yeah, yeah. If it had been my classroom, what would I have done? Would I give my life for my students? Like what would I have done? It is I. . I do have great empathy for faculty, um, because they're also in a very unusual position when you think about it, because our students are actually quite well trained at this point.

[00:30:43] Mm-hmm. , because unfortunately they've been doing active assailant training, some of them since kindergarten. 

[00:30:50] Jaime Hunt: Yeah. Sadly. Which 

[00:30:51] Christy Jackson: sadly, which is a whole other level of crazy that I can't even tap into, but they, they know what. . [00:31:00] They also are coming to us from an environment where the teacher has certain responsibilities in the K through 12 student, you know, environment.

[00:31:06] And they are, it's very different in college. And I do have great empathy for them and for our faculty. And being in this really unusual position of, you have a group of adults in front of you, not a group of kindergartners. But I will tell you, they were terrified. My students were. , um, and they're looking to you for guidance.

[00:31:32] They're looking to you as the adult in the room, and it was terrifying afterwards when I had time to reflect on it, it was, it was absolutely terrifying and the responsibility that I carried in that role, 

[00:31:46] Jaime Hunt: I bet those students feel as though that is one of the most memorable moments of their college experience, not just from.

[00:31:55] this is a horrible, terrifying thing that happened. But also from getting to [00:32:00] witness what happens on the communication side in those first moments and being a part of that like that has gotta trump anything that they would've learned over the course of a class to be able to see you in action, to be able to help, um, from the social media perspective, to have, um, the takeaways of, of witnessing what if this is what they chose to do with their career, they might experie.

[00:32:25] Christy Jackson: Well, it's inter, I'll tell you, one of my students is actually, um, on my team now. Oh, 

[00:32:29] Jaime Hunt: that's 

[00:32:29] Christy Jackson: awesome. Oh, that's awesome. And bless her heart. Um, so she graduated that May, she started working with our team almost immediately after graduation and then Covid hit. But I will tell you, she was well equipped to handle just sort of that chaos.

[00:32:51] And she's, she's amazing. . But I also think having those students in that classroom helped me because you had no [00:33:00] choice but to be calm. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:33:02] Jaime Hunt: You're a role model, 

[00:33:04] Christy Jackson: right? And you're setting the tone, right? Yeah. If they see me freak out, they're gonna freak out. Yeah. So I really, it caused, I guess, my laser focus to be even more laser focused because I could not.

[00:33:22] those 12 students being terrified. Yeah. Any more than they already were. So you were talking 

[00:33:29] Jaime Hunt: about those Tetris pieces. Can you talk to our listeners a little bit about what those pieces are? What are the principles that guide you when you're in the midst of a situation? 

[00:33:39] Christy Jackson: So it's a little different, I think too, if you're dealing with actual a life health, safety.

[00:33:45] Um, you talked about how they were so challenging emotionally to go through, which I absolutely agree. , but in a lot of ways, they're the easiest to, to, to deal with, in my opinion, at least the initial response because everyone has the exact same need. Life, health, safety, life, health, [00:34:00] safety, and that trumps everything they need.

[00:34:03] Tactical instructions. This is what you need to be doing in this exact moment, and this is how long I need you to do it until I'm gonna tell you. , and I'm gonna tell you again in this amount of time, and I would say if there was one nugget that listeners took, is do not underestimate the the need to, to set expectations on time and updates and the need to follow through on that.

[00:34:32] I'm gonna update you again in 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30, whatever the cadence is, and then you better meet. . Um, and I think in a crisis that is so critical cause people are not thinking rationally, they're thinking irrationally. And they're, if they're in a lockdown situation, well, did I miss the message? Is it, did they forget to send it?

[00:34:47] I mean, the timing and the, the repetitive nature of it, even if all you're doing is basically saying nothing has changed, stay where you are. Send that. So those are the first needs. What do you actually need them to [00:35:00] do to stay safe and how do they go about doing what you need them? and then after that has sort of been taken care of.

[00:35:09] That's when your care, your compassion, your recovery from this really begins. How is your chancellor or your president showing up for his or her, their community? What, what do you want people to know about sort, they're sort of your, you know, griever in chief setting. The tone for that, setting the tone for how you as a community are gonna respond to this.

[00:35:33] What are gonna be your prior. You know, for us here, we were very clear from the beginning our priority supporting our Riley and Reed's families, our victims' families, and our students and our, and our internal community. We didn't issue not one single media release during the entire shooting. We didn't, not once everything we said, we said internally and our external audiences.

[00:35:54] Got it. So it's that, and then it is sort of the follow through the follow. , [00:36:00] a crisis of that magnitude has a very long tail, which I think people underestimate. How are you looking at the bigger picture? How are you looking at the ramifications of what happened? How are you, you know, mediating that through communication.

[00:36:13] How are you communicating in a way that is clear? You have taken it seriously, that you are doing all you can, that you care, but not doing it in such a way that it looks as though you're not moving forward appropriately, if that makes sense. Mm-hmm. , it's really. because people grieve differently. They recovered differently.

[00:36:32] They recover and grieve at different paces. And we discovered that, you know, we had people on our campus that a month later didn't wanna talk about it again cuz they couldn't mm-hmm. . And we had people a month later, it was still all they wanted to talk about six months later, that's all they wanted to talk about.

[00:36:47] So it's sort of that. It's the urgency, the health, life, safety. And then you begin the recovery and setting the expect. for that. Your principles that are gonna guide you and how are you gonna know when you're done, [00:37:00] understanding when you're gonna be done. Um, and it may not be for a very 

[00:37:07] Jaime Hunt: long time. , I would think it's safe to say that the long tail on these types of things is at minimum a year because you're going to continue to have media coverage and you'll have media coverage of the anniversary, and if the, um, person is captured, you'll have media coverage throughout any trial that happens and all of that.

[00:37:29] Like, it just, it's gonna get brought up the next time there is a, a campus shooting, which is unfortunately it feels. Such a regular basis, but these are, these are long tail events. These are not things that just, okay, there's a closure to the end of this 

[00:37:48] Christy Jackson: and, and there's the emotional tale and there's the, quite frankly, the business tale.

[00:37:52] So it's, it's the criminal case, it's the anniversary, it's the first day of class. It's the [00:38:00] recruitment. It's, you know, our shooting here happened on April 30th. The next day was May 1st. Wow. When? Yeah. Oh yeah. When everybody's gotta make a decision on where they're going. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, you, it's, it's, it's the true, genuine, emotional care, compassion, recovery, and it's the business recovery.

[00:38:22] It's both. Um, and I think sometimes people can sacrifice one for the other, and it's really more about finding that. 

[00:38:32] Jaime Hunt: Yeah. How did you counsel your chancellor through the 

[00:38:36] Christy Jackson: experience? So I would say I was very, very, very, very fortunate, um, with the chancellor we had at the time of the shooting and also the chancellor that we have now.

[00:38:49] Um, Phil Dewa. I didn't have to counsel him at all. He also has been through more crises than, than you can count. He was the chancellor at Wyoming when Matthew Shepherd was [00:39:00] murdered. Oh. Oh wow. So he came with a deep abiding understanding, and I will say actually one of the biggest gifts he gave all of us was at our seven eight 7:00 AM meeting on May 1st, and he said, we will be guided by our care for the families, our survivors, and our campus.

[00:39:23] Mm-hmm. . That is what will guide us When we have to make a decision, we will make them based. . Um, and so he, he really got it. You know, we had some discussions leading, you know, through the summer and leading into fall on what that was gonna look like. And we had an environment where our students, most of them, they never came back to campus after that day, cuz it was the last day of classes.

[00:39:49] Exams were made optional for obvious reasons. And so we really had to. , you know, the first day of class, but also the reintroduction to campus for a lot of these people that had [00:40:00] been horribly traumatized. Um, so we had to put plans into place for that. We had to, you know, convince prospective students and families that we were a safe place to be and a, a place they wanted to choose for the fall.

[00:40:15] Um, so it was thoughtful, it was intentional. And again, I. , I, I, this, I, I'm gonna make it sound easy, and it wasn't easy, but it was made so much easier by the trust we already had with our campus and our community. Um, it really, really was, we continued regular communication. We were giving updates frequently.

[00:40:40] We developed, you know, a website where people could go at any time and get information. We gave people opportunities to give feedback. We actively solicited their feedback for how we could do. , um, across the board, not in com, just in communications, but tell us in safety and all of these things, what can we do better?

[00:40:57] We did outside assessments. [00:41:00] We had folks come in and assess our response that day and how did we do? And we kept people updated on that progress. We were, we tried to be as transparent as we could be throughout the whole process. Um, cuz we had nothing to hide. I think we a, again, across the. I think we responded as well as we possibly could have in a situation like that.

[00:41:26] But I was very fortunate that I had a chancellor who deeply in his bones understood not only crisis, but deeply in his bones, felt such pain, um, about the situation. You know, he teared up multiple times in speeches and we talked about that. , you talked about authenticity earlier. That was, it was so authentic because it, it came across as authentic cuz it was, his pain was real and palpable.

[00:41:58] And we were fortunate to [00:42:00] get, you know, the chan our, our new chancellor who, who came in after that. And that's a really hard position to come in and have to guide through the anniversaries Yeah. Of an event like that. And she has really leaned into listening to the. and hearing what people who are here have to say and let that guide our next steps as we develop our permanent memorial and really understanding that that day every year is a day for our community.

[00:42:29] Um, that involves some reflection and some acknowledgement. And so I've just, I've really been very fortunate in that regard. 

[00:42:38] Jaime Hunt: So, shifting gears just a little bit. What do you think are some of the mistakes that people make in crises? And I, I'll confess, this wasn't part of my confession, but I will confess that, um, often Christie and I, uh, send each other, uh, headline news stories from other campuses that, uh, we agree we wish, or we are glad [00:43:00] that we are not at in the moment that they experience crises.

[00:43:03] But, um, what kind of mistakes do you often see made in a crisis in higher education? . 

[00:43:09] Christy Jackson: So we've talked about a lot of these, but I would say it's, uh, the mistake of underestimation and the mistake of overestimation. So I think people frequently underestimate the tail like we talked about. I think they underestimate how long it's gonna last, the resources it's gonna take.

[00:43:26] I think people understand, oh, sometimes underestimate exactly how bad it can. , and that's not necessarily in a life safety crisis that's in some of these other crises. The crises of bad decisions is how I call them or indecision. And it's like, oh no, it won't be a big deal. Oh, oh, no sir. No ma'am. This is gonna be a, a really, really big deal.

[00:43:48] I think people have a tendency to, um, employ the ostrich method of issues management sometimes, which is if I put my head in the sand and don't acknowledge danger, danger won't. [00:44:00] danger will not only see you, it'll bite you before you have a chance to respond. Um, so I definitely think people underestimate, especially in the day and age of social media, they underestimate how quickly something can gain fire and get ahead of you.

[00:44:15] And let's be honest with social media, you're never gonna get ahead of a crisis very rarely. Mm-hmm. , half the time you're gonna find out about it on social media. Yeah. Or social media will be your crisis. Yeah. So I definitely think there's under underestimation, I think there's also estim. I think actually what people do is overestimate what is a crisis.

[00:44:30] I think what people encounter most of the time is actually an issue to be managed. Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . And so sometimes people have a tendency to elevate immediately to a crisis level, and what you do is run out of steam very quickly. So then when you have an actual crisis, it's a lot harder to rally to that point.

[00:44:47] Um, and also if you manage issues correctly, hopefully you won't have a. You know, the way we kind of define it here is an, an issue is something that can be handled through a standard operating procedure. Mm-hmm. When you exhaust your standard operating [00:45:00] procedures, you're in a crisis. Mm-hmm. That's a really good way of looking at it, not a really good way of looking at it.

[00:45:04] Yeah. Issues can be bad, do not get me wrong, but they don't have the tail and require the resources that a crisis does. Along that same vein, I also think sometimes people o overestimate what is possible in a. Especially looking at their comms team. Well, the comms team can just make this go away or the comms team can just make it better.

[00:45:24] No, sometimes all we can do is huddle down with you and wait for the storm to pass and then come in with the cleanup crew and see what we can get done. Um, and I think to that point, sometimes one of the mistakes comms people can make is not sort of setting expectations, going into a crisis of what, what we think is actually feasible.

[00:45:47] and coming out without any bruises may not be feasible. It may be that our best course of action is to put our head down and take our punches and wait for it to stop. And sometimes that's a really [00:46:00] hard message to send if it's a really hard message to hear. Yeah, yeah. Um, but I think when you were misaligned on what is.

[00:46:09] uh, that is where you run into some real problems. I think 

[00:46:13] Jaime Hunt: that, um, a, a little, in many ways, Olivia Pope kind of, uh, made our jobs harder because I think in a lot of cases, absolutely other leaders are like, can't you just, Olivia Pope this situation? Can't you just call this thug that, you know, on a first name basis only, and have them threaten to break the kneecaps of the reporter that's gonna break this terrible story.

[00:46:34] I mean, I genuinely think. I have worked for people who have had that thought. But like, you're a fixer and it's, that's fiction people. Scandal is fiction. 

[00:46:45] Christy Jackson: And it's also a secondary crisis. when, uh, when they find out that you have threatened people. Correct. And then you're going to prison, then No, I do Thi I and I do think you're right.

[00:46:55] I think people sometimes have completely unrealistic expectations. Yeah. [00:47:00] Of, and again, it goes back with that do versus. Sure. I could say whatever, but if our actions aren't matching up or if I say it and then actions do the opposite, it doesn't matter. Yeah. If the actions don't match the words that we as an organization are saying, we aren't gonna fix this.

[00:47:20] Right. You 

[00:47:21] Jaime Hunt: talked earlier about having that credibility. Built upfront. What recommendations would you have for, uh, a higher ed communications professional for getting that credibility going? Uh, you can start tomorrow. You can listen to this podcast and start tomorrow to kind of lay the groundwork in the event you'll have a crisis in the future.

[00:47:41] What can you do to build that 

[00:47:43] Christy Jackson: credibility? So I would say my number one tip is if you have not recently asked your audiences about their communication perceptions on your campus, do. Start there and cast a wide net. Ask them not only about their perception, ask 'em about their perceptions [00:48:00] of emergency communication.

[00:48:01] Ask them about their perceptions of standard communication. Ask them about all of that because you really can't know one without knowing the other. Ask them how, what do they wanna know about that they're not hearing about now? Are there some things that we simply can't share? Sure. We have lots of federal regulations that prevent us from sharing some things as I also.

[00:48:22] The desire to know and the right to know are sometimes confused too. But start there. Do your expectations for what your audience want. Actually align with what they want. You might be surprised, and I will tell you, we jokingly call it the, we see it too, email, but hurricane communication, we found out through our research and asking our audiences then when there was a hurricane approaching north, or South Carolina, even if it is not going to impact Charlotte, our audiences, our students, our [00:49:00] families simply want to know that we are monitoring it and we're aware, and if there's anything they need to know, we will tell them.

[00:49:06] Mm. We have implemented that now as a standard part of our operating process. It is in our, like on this day when we're watching it, we're gonna let people know we're watching it, and it seems so basic. , but it was a piece we were missing because we had not asked them about weather communication, emergency community.

[00:49:26] We asked. They told us we did. It wasn't asking us. It wasn't asking for a lot. It's takes 30 seconds now to do it, but it's meeting them where they are. It's meeting the expectations that they have. What we actually found out is for some families that aren't from North Carolina, they actually don't understand how far Charlotte is from the coast.

[00:49:47] Hmm. Oh. So they hear hurricane coming towards the Carolinas. They are genuinely concerned for their child's safety. By sending a message, we alleviate that fear. [00:50:00] I mean, it's, it's that they ask your audiences, start with the research. Don't assume you know what they want. You might be surprised. We were surprised by that, but it was an easy fix start there.

[00:50:14] I would also say if you don't have a crisis communication plan, get. Yes, please, if you ha I am constantly surprised by how many people don't have one. I think crisis people assume it will never happen to them. So I would say step one, assume it will happen to you at some point in some form or fashion. I hope and pray it is never of the magnitude that you have experienced and I haven't experienced and others have experienced, but it will happen.

[00:50:40] And I would say more than that. As I said, make sure it's a research based. and if you have the ability to bring in someone to help you do that research and form your plan, do it. I get calls and emails frequently saying, can we have your plan? Will you share your plan with us? We're working on it. We'd like to use it.

[00:50:58] There are certainly things that are universal in comm's [00:51:00] plans, but I really truly believe in the personalization of it for the institution where you are based on the audiences you have, the needs, the demographics, all of. . Um, I don't think it's one size fits all at all. So I would say get one, invest in it, invest money in it, invest time in it, and then I would say practice it.

[00:51:19] Oh, for sure. That is actually such a common mistake people make is they don't practice it. They don't think about it. Um, and it's sort of muscle memory. If you don't have it, it at, I mean, if you don't use it at atrophies, that muscle atrophies is, and then you're literally blowing dust off of it. The plan when, when you need it, and it, that's not super effective.

[00:51:43] Jaime Hunt: One thing that I think is really important in the plan is to clearly outline what the roles are in the plan, and then make sure you have a person and a backup person and a backup backup person trained for that role. And then [00:52:00] when you get into a crisis situation, the person knows what they're gonna be.

[00:52:04] They're not going in in this panic sort of sense of, I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. Like we've all had those moments in our careers where we're like, what are, this is the first time this has happened. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do in this situation. They're going into it with, we have clearly delineated what my job is.

[00:52:21] In this case, I know what I'm supposed to do. I know where I'm supposed to report. I know what I have to do throughout this situation. I know who my backup is, and that just alleviates some of. For your team and makes your job so 

[00:52:34] Christy Jackson: much easier. I a thousand percent agree. I would add to that, as you look at doing these roles, think non-traditional too.

[00:52:45] You may very well find there are people on your campus that are very helpful in a crisis that you wouldn't normally think of. And I would also say, you know, we actually have a role in our crisis comp [00:53:00] plan that is a generalist. Mm. And that is the person we have. We have delineated roles and this person is responsible for this and they report to this person in a crisis and, and this is what they do.

[00:53:10] Then we have a generalist and their role is to show up and do whatever is necessary. You would be amazed how critical it is to have someone who can just answer phones. Yeah. Oh, for sure. Oh, for sure. And every phone is going to be ringing off the hook. 

[00:53:25] Jaime Hunt: Yes. And logging those phone calls and 

[00:53:28] Christy Jackson: logging them and make, especially media inquiries and you know, a comms center, you're gonna get calls from everywhere.

[00:53:35] People that don't know where else to call, they're gonna call you. So having someone, yes, who can log it, who can help get them where they need to be. Like it is the person who you can look at and say, I need this. And they know who on campus to call. Don't underestimate the importance of that. I would also say with our crisis com plan, now we have the benefit of some trial [00:54:00] and error and recalibration that we've been able to do with various issues.

[00:54:04] Our traditional reporting structure goes out the window in a crisis. Yeah. And I would say assess that. Assess what makes sense. Yeah. Um, you, who you report to on a day-to-day may very well not be who you report to in a. We, we have one situation where in a crisis, these roles flip and a supervisor and an and a, uh, subordinate switch roles in a crisis because of the experience and the expertise and what's necessary in a crisis.

[00:54:35] And that's where, again, the personalization makes a, a ton of sense in my opinion. Cuz it's just not cookie cutter, no. Anywhere. It's not cookie cutter. Um, and I would love to say, and we try to do this as much as we can, define it by the role and not the person. Yes. But that's really hard to do. But I think 

[00:54:54] Jaime Hunt: that there's an opportunity when somebody leaves to go.

[00:54:57] Absolutely. And look at, if you're [00:55:00] saying, this person had this skillset, so we had them in this role, when they leave, it's time for you to re-look at that role and not be in a crisis. And looking at that role and going, oh, shoot, 

[00:55:10] Christy Jackson: a hundred percent. I agree. And what you want in a crisis. . Again, like we said before, it may be very, it may be very different than what you need normally, you know, to the extent that every university could allocate a person whose entire job was issues management and crisis preparation in comms, that would be ideal.

[00:55:30] Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. , but that rarely exists across the board. But yeah, I, I, the bench strength is so important to A, people take vacations. Mm-hmm. , but b, if you get into a sustained. That you are running a 24 hour or nearly 24 hour shop, people have got to sleep. Exhaustion of your personnel is a real threat in a crisis because your people are going to just get to the point where they cannot think anymore.

[00:55:59] If they cannot [00:56:00] rest. And you need to be making 

[00:56:01] Jaime Hunt: good decisions. Be making good 

[00:56:03] Christy Jackson: decisions. Absolutely. Absolutely. . 

[00:56:06] Jaime Hunt: This has been just an absolutely fascinating conversation, Christie and I, and I hope that our listeners took a lot away from it. Um, if people wanna reach out to you and, and talk with you a little bit about your expertise, where can they find you?

[00:56:20] Christy Jackson: So this is where I fail in comparison to you who, um, you are so prolific on social and LinkedIn and all the. They can find me on LinkedIn. Um, they would not know it by my profile because I'm woefully behind and updating it, but they can find me there. Uh, I am always available via email, uh, and my phone, which are listed on the UNC Charlotte communication website.

[00:56:46] Um, C Jack 113 is my email, c jcc.edu. I'm always, always happy to talk about this. They can always contact 

[00:56:55] Jaime Hunt: you and you can get in touch with me. Absolutely. And Christie has just been a very generous colleague, [00:57:00] um, with sharing her expertise and her wisdom. And honestly, I feel like you are such a gift to the profession because you've been through so much, but you've kept your sense of humor and you've also done just a fantastic job of taking the lessons that you've learned to make yourself a better practitioner.

[00:57:20] Every single time, and it's such an inspiration to me. I, I just admire you so much and appreciate, um, everything you do. And I just wanna say that the fact that you have not run screaming from higher ed after experience all of these things, um, to go do literally anything else that would probably be less stressful is, uh, a miracle.

[00:57:40] Well, 

[00:57:41] Christy Jackson: You and I talk about it all the time. Uh, I think to do this, there's something in your blood that you just believe in it so much. And I truly believe that the chance for us to cure all that is wrong in this world lies in higher ed and what we do every day on our campuses. And, um, I feel very lucky.

[00:57:57] to be able to do that really. But yeah, [00:58:00] I 

[00:58:00] Jaime Hunt: thank you so much for coming on the show, Christie and listeners, as always, use the hashtag hire ed CMO to join in the conversation about this on social media. I am at the time of this recording still on Twitter, waiting to see how our Twitter overlord, uh, handles.

[00:58:18] This platform, um, but also on LinkedIn and you can reach out to me there. I'm always happy to chat. And in the meantime, let's go bust some silos.

[00:58:33] Zach Busekrus: Hey y'all. Zach here from Enrollify. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Confessions of a Higher Ed CMO with Jaime Hunt. If you like this episode, do us a huge favor and hit that follow and subscribe button below. Furthermore, if you've got just two minutes to spare, we would greatly appreciate you leading a rating and a review of this show on Apple Podcasts.

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