The hazing death of Florida A&M (FAMU) drum major Robert Champion and the long-concealed child sexual abuse by Jerry Sandusky at Penn State University have prompted an intense focus within higher education on how campus leaders should respond in times of crisis, particularly one involving suspected criminal activity.“If you suspect criminal activity, call the police. That’s the only way to protect the institution,” says Dr. Terry W. Hartle, senior vice president of government and public affairs at the American Council on Education.
Hartle and other experts say college leaders should obey laws on reporting possible crimes, assemble a management plan and a predetermined team for crises, conduct an internal investigation without compromising any criminal probes and privacy laws, “take ownership” of the issue and release as much information as legally allowed.
Because of due process protections, those experts advise against automatically firing suspected campus employees or expelling students believed to be at fault.
The test for removing a college president or other administrators, experts say, is whether he or she gathers the relevant information, shares it with the board of trustees and takes decisive action to address the crisis.
At Penn State, the cover-up of Sandusky’s crimes failed those tests, resulting in the departure of president Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley, vice president Gary Schultz and famed football coach Joe Paterno.
“The idea that the university [officials] had knowledge of this and dealt with it inappropriately is just a catastrophic failure of leadership,” says Dr. James T. Minor, director of higher education programs at the Southern Education Foundation. “It just calls for being terminated.”
Those Penn State officials failed to follow Hartle’s “first rule” in such circumstances—notify the police. They disregarded a federal law on reporting campus crime and possibly Pennsylvania law that mandates reporting of child sexual abuse, which does not specifically mention coaches. Most states have a similar “mandatory reporting” law.
