Baylor University has consistently made headlines for its systemic cover-up and minimizing of sexual assaults committed by its students since 2015. A new report by PR Week reveals even more evidence that the university is willing to do anything to cover up their misdeeds while showing zero evidence of being genuinely remorseful and open to real accountability.
Two sources told PR Week that Baylor University went straight into “save our asses” mode once their now-former football player was convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to 180 days in jail, 10 years' felony probation, 400 hours of community service, and lifelong registration as a sex offender. The fact that the vast majority of sexual assailants never see a day in jail—in fact, most are never even arrested—highlights just how much of an outlier this case is.
Instead of using the conviction as an opportunity to see how Baylor University could change, the administration decided to invest in “reputation management,” focusing on public relations improvements instead. Their general counsel hired a company called Ketchum South.
Not only did the school hire a firm to make them look good (instead of, you know, actually being good), they used their director of student activities Matt Burchett as a “mole” to feed information about student survivor groups to the administration. For example, one of the sources says Burchett would pretend to be on the side of survivors, but defend the now-disgraced former chancellor Kenneth Starr when they wanted to demand action from Starr.
Court documents from a Title IX lawsuit against the school show that Baylor didn’t care about real action that was in the best interests of students. The attorney for the plaintiffs told PR Week, "The PR strategy by Baylor to misdirect attention away from university-wide failures is highly important in showing they engaged in a concerted strategy to get the public to believe this is entirely and only a football-related problem."
In short, Baylor wanted to spin more lies, use an athletic team as a scapegoat, and use information about survivors themselves to hinder their efforts. It’s no wonder that the PR strategy hasn’t worked, because the original problem still exists: institutional cover-up of sexual assault.
It's a shame that they didn't want to talk to survivors under honest pretenses, and that the legal department decided to protect the status quo instead of sharing a better, safer vision for the future of Baylor.
It seems that Baylor University corruption goes much deeper than they would want us to think.