Crisis management for colleges should be an essential part of every educational institution’s strategic public relations plan. When it comes to safeguarding college students, crisis preparation is a mandatory step that no college can afford to forego. Creating a crisis response plan takes thought and planning but the peace of mind such a plan can provide in a crisis is well worth the effort. 

Educational institutions that have a college crisis management plan in place when an emergency occurs have an outline to follow. It provides details that explain which stakeholders should be contacted, and outlines what actions need to be taken first to reduce fallout from any threats or situations that occur.

Knowing what to do, whom to contact, how to address the media, and what information is immediately needed are all necessary parts of a crisis management plan for colleges. Crisis response agencies like Red Banyan can help your college prepare for the unexpected by assisting with the creation of a college crisis communications plan that will help reduce some of the uncertainty associated with disasters.

Red Banyan’s team of strategic communications experts and crisis PR professionals have the skills and experience to assemble a comprehensive crisis management college plan that will include a wide range of variables so that your college is prepared to address almost any scenario that could arise.

Crisis Management College Athletics

Crises in college athletics are in the news all too often. Crisis management college planning is essential when it comes to college athletics. A college crisis PR plan will outline how to handle negative publicity, explore various possible corrective actions and provide a guideline for assessing how the school is handling its situation.

During a college athletics crisis, messaging should be developed that is directed at all the affected parties, so every stakeholder receives information tailored to his/her particular position. Educational institutions that successfully manage crises that affect college athletics take control of the narrative early and steer the conversation in a direction that allows the college to tell its story on its own terms. Responding to someone else’s version of the facts is never the most beneficial scenario. 

Red Banyan’s team of experienced crisis PR professionals will make sure your team’s message is unified, truthful, and told in a way that benefits your university or institution of learning. Getting out the right facts in the right way in important to shaping your message. 

College athletics teams regularly yield news and are constantly under the microscope. Because of this intense scrutiny, it can be easy for a seemingly minor incident to quickly grow into a much bigger problem in a short time. 

Being able to react quickly and tamp down any knee-jerk response is key to reducing the effect of a crisis in college athletics.


College Crisis Communications Plan

Your college’s reputation took years to build. However, when a crisis occurs, the school’s good name can be forever tarnished if the crisis response is non-existent, delayed or weak. How your college responds during and after a crisis can shape the way it is viewed far into the future. 

Red Banyan’s team of crisis communications experts can help your college recover from a crisis by assessing the impact, customizing internal and external messaging and making good on promised reforms. Our team of seasoned communications professionals has decades of experience handling school crises and can help your college get back on track.

Our college crisis management experts will help your school recognize and assess reputational threats and respond to crises by providing advice on what to say, how to say it and to whom your messages should be delivered. 

Red Banyan’s team of strategic communications professionals will help your college prepare for, respond to and recover from a crisis by creating a comprehensive crisis response plan that includes a range of possible scenarios that could arise.

Tips to Successfully Navigate a College Crisis:

Build a trusted communications team; you need a core team of trusted individuals to handle communications in the event of a crisis

Map out potential responses in advance

Assess the situation efficiently

Make use of social media

Remain compassionate

University Crisis Communications 

When a crisis occurs at a university, the school’s crisis response team must spring into action to mitigate damage and communicate with all relevant stakeholders. University students and parents will require different information than faculty and support personnel.  

Knowing how to reach each group before a crisis occurs is essential, because when disaster strikes, it can be easy to panic. That’s why creating a university crisis response plan before you need one is so important. 

University employees who have a crisis response plan before they need one may be able to minimize damage and reduce threats with an established plan of action.

A crisis PR plan is a set of guidelines created to help a college or university address the fallout from an emergency or unexpected event. Crisis response plans include steps to take when a crisis first occurs, how to communicate with the public and various audiences and how to prevent the problem from recurring.

You may have to act fast if something happens that can have a major impact on the university or the surrounding campus. Knowing what to do will save time and result in a more favorable outcome for students, faculty, other support personnel and anyone else with ties to the college.

It is important to understand that every crisis or emergency will require a unique response and every response will depend on the nature of the crisis. The magnitude of the crisis will determine who needs to know about what is being done, and whether or not the media should become involved.

Crisis PR Plans for Colleges

Crisis management college plans should address the five Cs of crisis communications: care, commitment, competency, community and continuity. 

Thorough crisis communications plans for colleges focus on how the school will communicate with its stakeholders during and after an emergency. Schools must have a plan to communicate with employees, students, faculty, the general public, the media and anyone else who is connected with the college.

Depending on the severity, anything that can stall, or halt school could be considered a crisis. The key to overcoming adverse circumstances is having a plan in place to address the problems and reaching out to everyone who is affected by utilizing a crisis management college plan.

College Crisis Management Frequently Asked Questions:

  1. Why is it important to have a college crisis plan?

Having a college crisis plan in place before a crisis occurs provides a roadmap for an emergency response should unexpected events or a disaster occur. Knowing what to do and say and whom to contact can mean the difference between failure and success.

  1. What does a college crisis plan include?

An effective crisis management plan includes a risk analysis, an activation protocol, a chain of command, a command center plan, response action plans, internal and external communication programs, resources, training and a review post-crisis.

  1. How do you write a college crisis plan?

A school crisis response plan should include guidelines for membership on the college crisis response team and the roles of its members; protocols for delivering crisis intervention services; and protocols for delivering information including notifying team members, school staff, students, parents, the media and the community.