Talk about your teachable moments.
The last fortnight has been embarrassing for the University of South Florida’s advertising and mass communications school. Its director, Samuel Bradley, was placed on paid administrative leave after it came to light that he left his previous position–at Texas Tech University–under less than honorable conditions. Way less. As in reports of intimate relations with some students.
As in leaving before you get fired.
He also came to USF–in 2013–sans references, never a good sign, especially for someone who was ticketed for tenure. And then there was last year’s apparent non-presentation at a conference in Puerto Rico where he was supposed to present. But he apparently did present himself at a sex shop called Condom World with a young woman near the hotel where he was staying for the conference.
No, you can’t make this up.
Seemingly, due diligence is still due. Or maybe Condom World is where the accountability rubber finally met the road.
This is beyond bad. USF’s communications department has had five directors since 2010. Enrollment, not just prestige, has been dropping. And USF voluntarily allowed its accreditation–from the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism–to lapse three years ago.
Too much has been going right at USF for it to have an outlier school bring disgrace upon the well-earned brand.
And how ironic that we’re talking about a school of advertising and mass comm, which brings us back to that teachable moment. Wouldn’t this be quite the case study for journalism students and, especially, those in the PR sequence?
This is about overdue diligence and outing those who never properly vetted Bradley. This is about scrutinizing a systemic breakdown and fact-checking through the bureaucracy and pursuing truth, however salacious. You don’t need to watch “Spotlight” for motivation.
And this is about proper, professional damage control.
Being honest and up front about screw-ups and lack of diligence. Instituting better hiring practices. Being cooperative with a media that you want your students to be proud members of some day. And if you have to bring in a Hill & Knowlton to clean this up and hire a heavy-hitter to run this reputation-challenged school within USF, then so be it.
But it’s about more than rehabbing a reputation. It’s also about protecting–literally– your students.