Whereas a lot of the stress being utilized to universities is coming from conservatives, the colleges themselves have turned to Democratic-allied companies for assist.
New York College, the place in October the regulation college’s pupil bar affiliation president
rapidly blamed Israel for the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas, enlisted veteran Democratic consulting agency SKDK — whose purchasers have included President Joe Biden’s 2020 marketing campaign and the Democratic Congressional Marketing campaign Committee — to assist with the college’s inner and exterior responses across the battle and associated points.
The work included recommendation round points with donors, college students and authorities officers’ inquiries round antisemitism, in response to an individual near SKDK who requested anonymity to debate the agency’s work. The agency declined to remark. The college’s official work with SKDK started round December, when three of its peer universities appeared earlier than the Home Training and the Workforce Committee for a listening to on antisemitism.
The Cooper Union, the New York Metropolis college the place Jewish college students huddled in a library throughout a pro-Palestinian protest in October, additionally introduced in SKDK to assist it navigate fallout from that incident. The agency helped the faculty reply to a
media inquiry from The Messenger.
Harvard College has turned to a different Democratic agency, Precision, to assist it deal with fallout from turmoil over pro-Palestinian protests on campus within the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas assaults. The college was engulfed in controversy for weeks over its response to campus teams that mentioned they held Israel “completely chargeable for all unfolding violence.”
The agency, which
had a pre-existing relationship with the varsity, supplied communications help after Oct. 7 to assist with the disaster on campus, two individuals conversant in the association mentioned. The college additionally has turned to PR behemoth Edelman and the companies of former Chuck Schumer aides Risa Heller and Alex Levy.
Columbia College has leaned on the consulting big FGS World, with which it has had a working relationship going again a number of years, in response to a Columbia spokesperson. As a part of the contract, the agency has helped out with communications help in coping with points affecting the college since Oct. 7. Columbia suspended pro-Palestinian teams in November for occasions that violated college insurance policies, together with one which “‘proceeded regardless of warnings and included threatening rhetoric and intimidation,’” in response to an electronic mail cited by the varsity’s pupil newspaper
the Columbia Each day Spectator.
The College of California reached out to a agency run by a outstanding Democratic operative for counsel by itself dealing with of the unfolding cultural battles, in response to the Democratic operative who was granted anonymity to debate non-public conversations. However that individual’s agency doesn’t presently work for the varsity, and a college spokesperson mentioned it was “not conscious of any exterior entities being engaged” by means of the president’s workplace.
Various these companies introduced into the fold have shut ties to the Biden administration. SKDK co-founder Anita Dunn is now senior adviser to the president. Precision was based by Obama and Biden world operatives.
Ken Spain, a Republican associate of the agency Narrative Methods, mentioned the choice to show to Democratic-allied companies illustrated how insular the schools are.
“Paradoxically, and unsurprisingly, the problem these universities are going through is their lack of political variety relating to in search of exterior advisement,” he mentioned. “A disaster of this magnitude requires a holistic technique, and proper now they appear to be a number of steps behind every information cycle, and that’s largely as a result of they’re caught in their very own echo chamber.”
That perspective was echoed by a longtime Republican lobbyist who works on schooling coverage who mentioned the challenges elite universities are having in Washington in current months are exactly as a result of they aren’t uncovered to various political viewpoints.
“No one ever talks to Republicans. They don’t even know easy methods to have a dialog with them,” the lobbyist mentioned. “They discuss to themselves so much however not as a lot to the skin world.”
Harvard, FGS World, Precision and Levy declined to remark. NYU and The Cooper Union didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Stacy Kerr, a associate on the public affairs agency Penta Group and former Nancy Pelosi aide, mentioned universities are scrambling for skilled communications assist as a result of they’re coping with new exterior forces. Kerr, who served as chief communications officer at Georgetown College, mentioned faculties had approached her, searching for assist in the wake of Oct. 7. Her agency works with some universities, and he or she has additionally been consulting with college leaders, however she declined to say who.
Traditionally, larger schooling has not relied closely on public affairs help, past lobbying for presidency funding, she mentioned. However Kerr added that universities had been the following battleground in a bigger tradition battle, and faculties had been now making an attempt to catch up.
“In an trade that has not traditionally employed and relied on quite a lot of exterior perspective, you’re now seeing a race and a scramble to realize exterior perspective as a result of there’s new teams of stakeholders now pressuring and threatening the sustainability of those college presidents’ jobs or in some circumstances, the status of the college,” she mentioned.
The usage of exterior PR assist comes as elite larger schooling brace for a continued onslaught of scrutiny within the coming months. The Home is ready to vote on a bipartisan deal within the coming weeks that may direct federal funding away from rich universities towards short-term job coaching packages. And there’s rising bipartisan curiosity in imposing new restrictions on schools’ international sources of income.
As well as, Home GOP leaders are gearing up to make use of their gavels to scrutinize larger schooling. The Home schooling committee introduced plans to research schools for his or her dealing with of antisemitism after lawmakers already held a number of hearings final yr.
Ari Fleischer, a former Bush White Home press secretary who now runs his personal PR agency, mentioned that universities received’t resolve their PR points with conservatives by hiring companies that don’t know easy methods to discuss to right-leaning Individuals.
“The issue is that if the notion is these universities are out of contact as a result of they’ve develop into left-wing citadels and fortifications, hiring left-wing PR companies to construct a greater fortification is the very last thing that they should do,” he mentioned.
“The basic downside is that these main universities would quite make it by means of the night time, quite than resolve their long-term issues,” Fleischer added. “They need to paper over their quick issues, hope that the temperature of the water drops beneath boiling after which return to what they had been at all times doing.”