Guidelines for Reputation and Issues Management
Engaging with UCM Reputation and Issues Management
The Reputation and Issues Management department provides CMU community members with information and tools to navigate current and emerging issues that pose a reputational risk to CMU, prioritizing campus safety. The office works with partners in the schools and other departments on campus anticipating potential problems and communicating clearly about matters of concern.
Our Mission and Scope
We serve as a university-wide resource for anticipating, managing and mitigating reputational risk for all areas of the institution. We focus upon:
- Issues monitoring and stakeholder risk analysis
- Crisis communication planning
- Brand and reputation management
- Cross-campus alignment during high-impact events
How we assist partners across campus
- Issues Identification and Monitoring
- Crisis Communication Strategy
- Media and Message Coordination (in conjunction with UCM Media Relations and Social Media)
- Reputation Risk Assessments
- Internal Education and Policy Advising
Contact Us / Report an Issue
If you are a CMU faculty or staff member and want to speak to someone about a potential or rising issue, you can contact Chuck Carney, senior director, reputation and issues management, chuckcar@andrew.cmu.edu, 412-268-6578. If you would prefer to send more information about an issue, including descriptions and attachments, you may also use our issue reporting form (Andrew ID required).
How We Work
When you reach out to the office, we may bring in other partners across the university and within University Communications & Marketing to best address the situation. These partners will vary, but we frequently work with Enterprise Risk Management, which is CMU’s business continuity office that assesses risk across the entire university. If there is an emerging situation, the Reputation and Risk Management office is part of an on-call team that assesses potential threats to take quick action. For a genuine emergency that threatens your or others’ safety, your first call should be to 911 or CMU Police at 412-268-6232.
When an issue allows for time to examine an issue more fully, the Reputation and Issues Management department will conduct interviews and briefings to prepare anticipated tools. As a part of analyzing an issue, we may create an Issues Brief, which provides background and potential tools that can be helpful if an issue escalates. Here’s an example of what an issues brief may contain. For matters that may become highly publicized and attract attention to the institution, we can prepare tracking documents to determine needs for follow up and potential responses.
Other Resources
The office also compiles a daily higher education landscape report that is disseminated to a select list of CMU email addresses. This report contains relevant news reports, links to documents, and other items specific to Carnegie Mellon in particular and higher education as a whole. Archived reports are available to CMU faculty and staff. Send an email if you are interested in being added to the distribution list.