A shooting occurred at Northern Illinois University on February 14, 2008 that killed 6 people including the gunman and injured 19 others. NIU enacted its crisis communications plan in response. The plan emphasized providing timely information to students, faculty, parents and media. NIU held its first press conference within 2.5 hours and kept people informed through its website and social media. While some objectives were not SMART, the plan effectively kept audiences informed and restored confidence in NIU's safety, earning it praise and awards for its response to the tragedy.

1. NIU Shooting ‘08
2009 Silver Anvil Award Winner – Crisis
Communications – Government

2. • Shortly after 3 p.m. on February 14, 2008, a gunman
burst on to the stage of a large lecture hall at Northern
Illinois University and opened fire on the audience of
nearly 150 undergraduates
• Within three minutes, six people (including the gunman)
were dead while 19 others were injured
• The crisis communications plan NIU enacted following
the shooting received resounding praise for its efficiency,
effectiveness, and transparency
Situation

3. • Post 9/11, NIU President John Peters called for increased attention to
campus emergency preparedness
• NIU Public Affairs team attended crisis communications workshops,
participated in teleconference seminars, and read books and articles
by crisis communications experts
• Virginia Tech shootings in 2007 had a large effect on NIU’s new
crisis communications plan
• NIU staff worked closely with counterparts at VT to learn new web
communication techniques
• Public Affairs department head attended a national higher education
meeting at which Virginia Tech administrators shared lessons learned
• Public Affairs staff participated in an exhaustive, line-by-line review of
the Virginia Tech Review Panel report
Research

4. Planning
Objectives & Publics

5. • Provide emergency alert information as quickly as possible to
students, faculty, and staff – no time for meetings prior to first alert
• Keep all audiences (particularly students and parents) as widely
informed as possible throughout crisis
• Use website to provide updates to all audiences – including hungry
news media
• Treat news media as partners – they have communication skills
necessary to reach primary audiences
• Maintain institutional credibility through maximum timely disclosure
• Manage the message: Victims and their families are our first priority
• Re-establish/Reinforce reputation as safe and caring campus
community
Objectives

6. • Campus community (students, faculty, and staff), parents,
and members of the media – Primary
• Each of these publics wanted to be as up-to-date as possible
on the story
• The campus community needs to know what happened and
whether or not they are safe, parents need to know if their
children are safe, and media members need to know as
much as possible to inform their publics
Publics

7. • NIU’s crisis communications plan was tested twice before the
February 14th incident:
• Late August: downpour caused flooding that required total
campus evacuation on the day before the fall semester started
• December: racially-charged threat was found in a residence hall
bathroom and on a website, causing a one-day campus closure
• Crisis communications plan was executed successfully in both
instances
• These events brought to light the need for additional servers to be
purchased so website could handle unusually large visitor spikes
Fun Fact

8. •
•
•
•
First emergency alerts (web, email,
voicemail, hotline) completed at 3:20,
less than 15 minutes after the shooting
(plan required only simple authorization
from president, no meeting or discussion
required prior to initial alerts
Arranged and presided over six news
conferences, the first at 5:30 p.m., less
than two and a half hours after last shot
was fired; 200-300 reporters and
photographers were present at each
Streamed all news conferences and
subsequent events live on Internet
Continued to manage media and
messages throughout following year,
culminating in one-year anniversary
observance on February 14, 2009
•
•
•
Website quickly became “information
central,” with automatic repostings to
Facebook
Arranged and presided over six news
conferences, the first at 5:30 p.m., less
than two and a half hours after last shot
was fired; 200-300 reporters and
photographers were present at each
Established a media center in Altgeld
Hall (administration building);
auditorium used for formal briefings fully
equipped with multiple feed boxes and
other technology for broadcast media;
also opened up two large conference
rooms near auditorium, enabled Wi-Fi
access in each, and regularly supplied
food and drinks for media
Implementation/Executio
n

9. •
•
•
Facilitated dozens of individual
interviews with president, police e and
other spokespersons during first 48
hours; Assistant Vice President for Public
Affairs also served as spokesperson;
greatest attention on local and regional
media who cover NIU regularly
Worked closely with counterparts at
Kishwaukee Hospital and with coroner
on release of information about victims
(did not release names of wounded,
though many came forward and identified
themselves to the media)
Participated in hourly meetings of
president’s crisis management group; led
message development and spokesperson
preparation
•
•
•
•
Prepared talking points, speeches, letters,
all-campus emails, etc. Originated use of
“Forward, Together Forward,” motto (a
line from the NIU fight song) as symbol
of healing and recovery
President positioned as “public face” of
university; messages of sympathy, caring
and determination developed
Participated in planning of memorial
service on February 24; more than 12,000
people attended
Created memorial website with
application that allowed visitors to leave
messages of condolence and hope
Implementation/Executio
n (continued)

10. One year after the shooting, NIU’s crisis communications plan
received copious amounts of praise:
•The U.S. Department of Homeland Security commissioned a
report on the NIU incident in which crisis communications is
likewise held up as exemplary.
•The Chicago Tribune called NIU’s response “textbook crisis
management,” and commended NIU for its “transparency and
candor.”
•NBC Nightly News with Charles Gibson named NIU its “Person
of the Week” for its handling of the crisis and the resolve of its
campus community to not let an act of violence define the
university.
Evaluation and Results

11. • Praise from those outside of the university played an
large role in restoring the university’s reputation as a safe
and caring place, perhaps even more important though
was the reaction from the campus community itself.
More than 300 students were directly affected by the
shooting in various ways, but only 19 of those students
ended up leaving the university and applications from
prospective students also continued to rise in the year
following the shooting
Evaluation and Results

12. • NIU knew that keeping all audiences informed as much as
possible throughout the crisis was extremely important.
• While this was stated as an objective, I believe it should’ve been
the overarching goal of NIU’s crisis communications plan,
especially when a tragedy such as this occurs.
• I believe every one of the objectives stated were necessary to
achieve the would-be goal of keeping NIU’s audiences
informed
• None of these objectives are SMART as they all lack the
measurable and time-locked aspects of the SMART formula.
• Despite these shortcomings, I believe that in this instance the
SMART formula does not appropriately take in to account the
situation
My Evaluation

13. • NIU provided outcome objectives, which normally aim to
achieve a change in its public’s awareness, attitudes or actions;
but after a tragedy that shook the community, NIU was hoping
instead for its public’s awareness, attitudes and actions to
return to the way they were from before the shooting
• Keeping the campus community and parents informed could
not have been accomplished without the assistance of the news
media, which was equally interested in keeping everyone
informed
• Media center set up on campus as well as the efforts of campus
police to make room for satellite trucks allowed the media to stay
in close contact with the NIU Public Affairs team and keep the
nation informed
My Evaluation

14. • NIU deserved every award it received
• The actions the university took both leading up to the shooting
and after the shooting showed the university cared more about
those affected by the shooting than the reputation of the
university
• The objectives NIU came up with when devising its crisis
communications plan may have not met the SMART
requirements, but they were the ideal for the situation that NIU
found itself in, which in my opinion, this is the reason why the
campaign won the awards it did, because it didn’t allow itself
to be handcuffed by the traditional rules and flourished
because of it
Conclusion