Strategy off balance
The memo from the University of British Columbia’s dean of arts, Gage Averill, was alarming. It spoke of “serious allegations” leading to the temporary suspension of the chair of UBC’s creative writing department, author Steven Galloway.
It spoke of its priority as “attending to the safety, health and well-being of all members of our community.” It spoke of “multiple places to reach out for confidential support on campus.” It spoke of counselling “to support students in a respectful, safe, and supportive environment.”
But the one thing it didn’t speak of was what the nature of the allegations are. And on that point, as well-meaning as the university’s intentions may be, it got the balance wrong.
It’s understandable that UBC needs to walk a fine line between acting decisively on allegations and protecting the reputation of those involved while it investigates. But as late as Wednesday, when the memo was circulated, Galloway, the bestselling author of such books as The Cellist of Sarajevo and The Confabulist, told one newspaper even he didn’t know what the allegations were.
That left an information vacuum that, because of the alarmist tone of the memo, could only lead to people thinking the worst. And that’s not helpful to Galloway, staff and students. As author Angie Abdou noted, in the absence of information “it has turned into trial by social media and guilty until proven innocent.”
That can’t have been what UBC had in mind when it decided not to notify staff and faculty about the nature of the allegations. Indeed, while many of the posts on Twitter were positive, one drew comparisons to last year’s Jian Ghomeshi scandal, where CBC initially did not release its real reasons for firing the radio host.
For his part, Averill said: “We thought it best to go to the community with a balanced and limited communication.” He got the “limited” right, but not the “balanced.”
UBC needs to rethink its communications strategy. Warning students and faculty that they can seek counselling and support about a situation, without spelling out what that situation is, is not helpful to anyone. In fact, it’s frightening.
In the end, as the dean noted, the school issued the memo because “the story would soon get out.” He’s right about that. Now it’s up to UBC to get the information out in a balanced way.
UBC should say more about why it suspended Steven Galloway