Fourth Year Honourable Mention: We're Sorry and It Won't Happen Again: The Strength of Mortification and Corrective Action Following Saint Mary’s University “Rape Chant” Crisis

WRIT 4711, Practical Studies in Damage Control. Course Director: Jon Sufrin

Abstract

In her paper “We’re Sorry and It Won’t Happen Again”, Caterina Borracci insightfully analyses Saint Mary’s University’s response to the student leaders’ “rape chant” which was videotaped in September 2013.  Using extensive research and in-depth crisis communications theories, Borracci tells a compelling and convincing story of the university administration’s mostly successful strategies in confronting this public relations nightmare.  Based on its elegant yet clear prose, its detailed and thoughtful analysis, and its absorbing narrative structure, the paper is certainly a special pleasure to read.  It is surely a piece of writing of which the author should be proud.