Concordia University outlined two weeks ago that one of the actions that they would take to remedy the effects of Sept. 9 will be to improve Concordia’s “image and reputation,” by hiring a public relations firm.
Getting a PR firm to help the university will not cover-up problems of tensions on campus and will not make the problems go away. They must be dealt with directly.
The Director of Communications at Concordia, Dennis Murphy, says that his department is hiring a consultant to help out on long-term strategies and that the consultant from Columbia Communications will be charging about $150 to $200 an hour.
An outside public relations consultant confirms this is the standard rate for someone with about fifteen to twenty years of experience.
Columbia Communications is a firm with many clients in the federal government. Some clients include: the prime minister’s office, health Canada and environment Canada. There are also some business clients like Bombardier.
Dealing with political communications, this firm will probably help improve the image of the learning environment in the eyes in the public, and it will seem that the problem is being dealt with. In this sense the PR firm will be useful.
But making it seem that the problem is being solved through PR is not dealing with the problems at hand within the university. The action plan that the university presented recommends reviewing things, implementing committees and hiring new employees. Nothing specific was mentioned on how these elements of improvement would actually make things better at Concordia.
One vague example of how the university wants to ensure a safe, secure and non-intimidating environment is by having “a monitoring system in place to ensure that policies and guidelines will be respected.” How exactly will they monitor new policies and how will they punish those who do not comply?
Concordia is not an elementary school.
The university must get to the bottom of the internal problems like tensions between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian students, tensions between the CSU and university, and do it in a concrete manner. Having the public, and in turn, students believe that all is well at Concordia is a false perception.
Hiring a PR firm reinforces the belief that the problems of Sept. 9 must all be blamed on protesters and that the universities new policies are concrete measures to deal with internal problems. Protesters who wreaked havoc by smashing windows, throwing things and harassing people are partially to blame, but the university is also to blame for not realizing that it could not handle a controversial speaker and they are also to blame for not planning the event well.
