Crisis Communications

We’re here for you in a crisis

Public Affairs is designated the responsibility for issues management and crisis communications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Our staff have decades of experience providing communications leadership. We have access to resources and information that can help you. If your unit is facing a sensitive situation, you don’t have to respond to it alone. Public Affairs wants to be your strongest advocate, even in the toughest of times.

Public Affairs is ready to help you plan and execute a crisis communications strategy.

Considerations

• We consider a potential crisis to be an issue that affects a member of the campus community, a campus facility, etc., in a way that might be of wide public interest and of inquiry by news media at the local, regional or national level.
• If a crisis becomes a threat to someone’s physical safety, call 9-1-1 immediately.
• The Associate Chancellor for Public Affairs is the official spokesperson for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, leading and coordinating issues management and crisis communications.
• University employees should not speak on behalf of the university without the guidance of Public Affairs.
• Official statements that are distributed over Public Affairs channels are carefully crafted and vetted. Units may share these official statements on their own unit channels and accounts, but questions that units receive in response to the Public Affairs content should be directed back to Public Affairs.

Public Affairs is ready to help

Contact Public Affairs for assistance with crisis communications. Email publicaffairs@illinois.edu or call 217-333-5010.