Crisis Management for the Next Duke: Do the Anti-Brodhead

I just finished reading Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson's book on the Duke lacrosse travesty. I've had a few people comment to me that 400 pages is alot of book to rehash a story that most people already know the basics of. Maybe. One of the themes of the book is the disastrous performance of print and television media in reporting the story. The book goes into excruciating detail and what becomes obvious early on is that even if you followed the story closely in the media, you were largely misinformed - you only thought you knew the story, but you didn't. While there is value in getting the story right, unlike the media, this book ought to secure its place in posterity as a case study for future college presidents and administrations on how not to manage in a crisis. It chronicles the antithesis of leadership. Imagine a Jack Welchy business leadership tome in full reverse.

Who knows how lasting the damage will be for Duke. (Taylor and Johnson make brief reference to recent admissions statistics, confirming what I predicted here and here.) Whatever the extent of damage to the institution, it is hard to imagine academia being introspective enough to even read such a book, let alone internalize it. Yet, such a crisis will certainly befall another university in the future, and that university's president could do alot worse than reading Taylor and Johnson's book and doing everything 180 degrees from how Brodhead and Steel managed the crisis at Duke.