Use This Real-Time Case Study to Strengthen Your Own Crisis Preparedness
12/17/25 – – It’s easy to be critical of the communications response by Brown University, the City of Providence, local law enforcement, and Rhode Island state officials to Saturday’s campus shooting. From the first hours after the incident, it’s been unclear who is in charge. Public messaging and the resulting media coverage have failed to project a sense of confidence that this tragic, unfolding situation is well in hand.
“Clueless” and “rudderless” are adjectives dominating digital discussion.
But rather than be satisfied with the passive role of critic, corporate communicators should put this real-time case study to use. Consider this a “there but for the grace of God go I” opportunity to improve your organization’s crisis preparedness and response.
Put Yourself in Brown’s Shoes
To make your analysis actionable, focus on the embattled entity most comparable to your own organization. Unless you represent government or law enforcement, Brown University is the player in this crisis you want to observe most closely.
The perplexing press conferences we’re watching are a reminder that response to incidents worthy of wall-to-wall international news coverage (mass shootings, terrorism, natural disasters, etc.) will always be led by public officials. Companies, schools and other private institutions drawn into such crises take a back seat to police and government officials, who often delight in the attention (until things go south, as they have in Providence).
CEOs (and college presidents) are not responsible in the wake of an incident like this for getting the bad guys, assessing the crime scene, releasing evidence, prosecuting the perpetrators or issuing an “all clear” to the general public.
But that doesn’t mean CEOs should show up at press briefings unprepared and surrender their public leadership role.
Brown University President Christina Paxson, serving in her post since 2012 (an eternity for a college president), raced back to campus on Saturday evening from a trip to Washington D.C. Participating in a press briefing six hours after the attack, she expressed her support for the university community, but came off as uninformed and put out.
She failed to confidently address the pressing concerns of important Brown constituencies (including Brown parents watching the briefing at home), answering, “I don’t know” to multiple press questions as basic as, “Were the students in the classroom where the shootings took place taking an exam?”
While Watching the Briefings, Ask “How Would We Do?”
No question, we’re watching a train wreck. But in addition to being critics, we should also be thinking critically.
As you’re watching the authorities standing behind the press briefing lectern, ask yourself if your organization’s leaders have personal relationships with local law enforcement, your mayor, your state’s governor and Congressional representatives.
Have they nurtured mutual respect and trust? Or would they be meeting for the first time in the hours after a crisis?
As you’re listening to the questions posed by reporters, think about how many familiar (maybe even friendly) faces you would see among the press gaggle at a media briefing involving your company. Unlike the national and international press flown in from regional bureaus, your local and industry reporters are much more likely to cover you fairly and accurately.
Hopefully, you’ve taken them to lunch a few times and maybe even know what sports their children play in high school.
The communication carnage in Providence demonstrates why an organization’s leaders must be briefed as thoroughly as possible before coming face to face with reporters during a crisis. Sticking to what is known and avoiding speculation are cardinal rules of engagement. “We’re working with law enforcement to confirm all our facts,” is a much better answer then “I don’t know.”
Have you conducted media response training with your executives lately to prepare them for battle?
And as far as the most troubling questions still not answered in this case, consider what your responses would be. For example, how many security cameras do you have around your offices or facilities?
Is it time for your security department to reassess the placement of cameras and your access policies?
Pay Special Attention to Internal Communication
Organizations experiencing crises should prioritize what in The Crisis Preparedness Quotient I call an “inside-out” communication response.
As outside observers of crises, we spend a lot of time analyzing press coverage. That’s important. But even more time should be spent examining how organizations in the eye of a storm directly inform and support employees, customers and other stakeholders.
Unimpressed with Christina Paxson’s press briefing performance, I went online to see what she was saying and doing for Brown’s students and faculty. Go to the Brown University website and you land on an excellent, deeply moving letter to the university community from President Paxson.
In it, she appropriately focuses on the two students who lost their lives. The message is a beautiful tribute to Ella Cook and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov.
Paxson also reviews the comprehensive resources being provided to her internal audiences: “The University will continue to mobilize every available resource for mental health, well-being and spiritual support as we navigate a path toward healing.”
You begin to get a picture of a school community functioning pretty well and a leader who, despite her poor public performance, is making wise operational decisions.
Effective Crisis Response Requires Operational Resilience
This laudable “inside” crisis response is reinforced when you read the student reporting and hour-by-hour updates in the Brown Daily Herald. For example, the paper reported that Brown leadership on Sunday decided to cancel in-person final exams and send everyone home early for the holiday break, giving students grading options:
“Students can accept a course grade based on coursework completed up until December 13th, or they can remotely complete final exams, papers and reports so long as they submit materials to professors prior to Jan. 7. Additionally, students have the ability to retroactively change their grade option to ‘Satisfactory/No Credit’ regardless of whether they opt to submit additional assignments.”
(FYI: At Brown, students can take classes pass/fail (‘Satisfactory/No Credit’) or for traditional letter grades. They just must commit up front for each class. This requirement has been waived in the aftermath of the shooting.)
And consider this interesting operational decision reported in the Daily Herald:
“Early decision notifications for the class of 2030 will be delayed for ‘up to 48 hours,’ the Office of College Admission announced in an Instagram post. Decisions were set to be released tomorrow at 3 p.m.”
Imagine the mixed emotions high school seniors making Brown their “early decision” choice for college must feel right now. This is an important internal audience Brown administrators are thinking about as they navigate this crisis.
I share all this positive stuff not just to be fair to Brown, but to make the point that effective crisis response goes well beyond external communication. Press briefings and other external messaging are important. But as you observe this crisis from the outside, understand that how a leadership team manages the business and addresses internal audiences during a crisis is critical to crisis recovery.
The Brown leadership team’s operational resilience may be what saves President Paxson’s job.
So, skip the schadenfreude, gather your senior management team and go to school on the still evolving Brown shooting incident. Put yourself in Brown’s shoes, ask the “how would we do?” questions, and analyze the university’s response from the inside out. Follow developments in both The New York Times and The Brown Daily Herald.
With that analysis, you’ll be better prepared should a crisis of this magnitude come your way.
Crisis Quotient Blog 