8:40 a.m. Post: A Campus Rumor That Is Half True
At 8:40 a.m., a first-year student at Marlow State posts that a friend was 'attacked near the west parking garage' at 1 a.m. By 10:15 the post has 4,200 shares; a parent-run Facebook group is demanding a lockdown; a local TV crew is at the campus gate; the student newspaper has filed a public records request and wants comment by noon. Campus police confirm they took a report of an attempted robbery at 1:05 a.m. near the garage, have not identified a suspect, and are not certain the two accounts are the same event. The communications director left three weeks ago; the associate VP for student affairs is the designated spokesperson but is in a budget hearing until 11:00.
1. Specify your actions and messages for the next 90 minutes: what goes out, in what order, from whom, and what you deliberately do not say.
Read the worked answer
0–20 minutes - verify. Call the police chief. Establish four facts: what was reported, when and where, whether anyone is at large, and what safety guidance the department wants publicized. Confirm the escort service is actually operating before anyone promises it.
20–40 minutes - align. Text the associate VP, the president's office, housing, and HR. Agree on one holding statement and one named contact. Nobody else speaks.
40–60 minutes - publish. Post the holding statement on the university's primary channels and join the parent group as the official account rather than watching it. Content: what is confirmed, that police are investigating, what safety resources exist, and the time of the next update.
60–90 minutes - face the camera. The associate VP or a named designee gives the TV crew a brief statement. An empty gate at 11:30 looks like indifference.
Deliberately do not: call it an 'attack' before police do, describe the victim, speculate on a suspect, promise a lockdown decision you have not made, or say 'no comment.'
2. The rumor is partly true - a robbery report exists, but an 'attack' is unconfirmed. How do you handle that?
Read the worked answer
Correct precisely and narrowly, in a fixed order:
- Name what is confirmed: 'Police took a report of an attempted robbery at 1:05 a.m. near the west parking garage.'
- Name what is not: 'We have no confirmed report of an assault, and we cannot yet connect the social media account to the police report.'
- Say what you are doing and what you cannot say: 'We will not identify the individual or release investigation details, because that can compromise the case and the person's privacy.'
Two discipline points. Do not put the false detail in the headline - repeating 'attack' reinforces it; lead with the confirmed fact and place the correction after it. And do not say 'the rumor is false' when it is half true; that trades a short-term win for long-term credibility when the fuller story emerges.
Set an update cadence and keep it even when nothing changes: 'No new information at 1:00; next update at 4:00.' Finally, message the student who posted directly, on the record, with the confirmed facts - give them a reason to update that is not a demand to delete.
3. The student newspaper wants comment by noon and has filed a public records request. What is your response, and what do you do about the request?
Read the worked answer
Answer the noon deadline on the record, even if the answer is a short factual statement plus a time for follow-up. Missing a student journalist's deadline converts a likely ally into a critic and guarantees the story runs without your facts.
Keep the records process separate from the public statement:
- Acknowledge the request in writing, give the statutory response timeline, and name the records officer.
- Do not let the request become a reason to withhold basic public-safety information that is already public - the incident time, the location, the police log, prior incidents near that garage.
- Distinguish what is genuinely exempt (identities, active investigative detail, education records) from what is merely uncomfortable.
Do not use 'pending litigation' or 'active investigation' as blanket language in a public-safety matter; it is both inaccurate and corrosive. Offer the paper a background briefing with the police chief after 1:00. Give them the same facts everyone else receives - an exclusive that reads like a trade for favorable coverage creates the next crisis.