Tag: Consultant

Last fall, a group of key UNC-Chapel Hill stakeholders gave interviews to an external public relations firm, hired by the university, and described their thoughts on the school and its reputation.

Part of the firm’s findings from those interviews: “Carolina has lost its ‘Way.’”

The phrase is a reference to the Carolina Way, the legendary basketball coach Dean Smith’s philosophy that has become a larger ideal for the university as a whole.

“Over the last 10 years, there’s been a degradation of what UNC stands for,” said one interviewee. The quote is not attributed, but the 21 stakeholders who were interviewed included a host of top university officials, deans, faculty and communications professionals.

The findings are detailed in a report by the Brunswick Group, which The News & Observer obtained through a public records request.

UNC has been working with the global PR company for more than a year, additional records obtained by The N&O show, with efforts largely aimed at revamping the university’s communications, marketing and branding. The firm is also tasked with providing “advice and counsel” to Chancellor Lee Roberts and other senior university leaders, and its work for the university remains ongoing.

All told, the university has paid Brunswick nearly $908,000 since first contracting with the firm in July 2024, according to invoices obtained and tallied by The N&O. The funds came from the UNC-Chapel Hill Foundation, a pool of philanthropic donations to the university, and did not include taxpayer dollars, UNC spokesperson Kevin Best told The N&O.

“The University contracted the Brunswick Group to review the structure and operations of the communications and marketing functions of the University and to provide strategic communications counsel during a period of leadership transition starting in July 2024,” Best said in a statement. “The Brunswick Group supported a wide variety of topics and projects impacting the University’s messaging and brand reputation.”

Records show the firm also played a key role in the search for a new leader of the university’s communications operations, and that it briefly stepped in to help campus officials with monitoring the media coverage of Bill Belichick’s hiring as UNC’s football coach, among other work.

After a “decade of crisis and leadership changes,” as the October 2024 report described it, the records pertaining to Brunswick’s work for UNC peel back the curtain on the efforts, and money, the university is expending to bolster its reputation.

Firm’s work began last year

Brunswick’s work for the university began roughly a month before Roberts was tapped as UNC’s 13th chancellor. He had served in the interim role for about seven months prior to securing the job full-time.

A financier and businessman who does not come from the traditional academic background that university leaders tend to have — and who resigned from the UNC System Board of Governors to serve as chancellor — Roberts’ hiring raised eyebrows among many on and off campus.

Teresa Valerio Parrot, a higher education communications professional who runs her own consulting firm, said it’s not unusual for a university to bring in outside help for “additional hands” during a transitional period.

“They bring additional skill sets and can sometimes provide honest truth and constructive feedback to leaders in ways that those who are currently on staff may not feel comfortable, or may not be in positions to provide that kind of direct and, sometimes, blunt perspective,” Valerio Parrot said.

“In a transition,” she added, “that type of honest critique may be necessary to help refine how a new leader is presenting themselves and presenting the messaging for the institution, so that they better resonate, internally and externally, with key audiences.”

Brunswick Group partner Michael Schoenfeld, a former chief communications officer at Duke University, and senior partner Don Baer, a former White House communications director under President Bill Clinton, are among those leading the firm’s work at UNC.

Schoenfeld and Baer declined to comment on their work for the university when asked by The N&O.

Conducting a SWOT analysis

The university’s initial contract with Brunswick covered a two-month period and listed a total fee of $200,000 for the work. However, invoices obtained by The N&O show Brunswick’s work on “communications organizational assessment and strategic advisory services” continued for four months, through November, with the firm charging $125,000 for each month of the work.

The contract stated the firm would, among other tasks, “analyze media, social media and other measures in several key areas” of the university, including research, athletics, health care and fundraising, “to assess UNC’s current reputation and positioning.”

The firm also agreed to conduct SWOT — strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats — analyses of the university’s “public statements and positioning.” The findings of that exercise are listed in the October 2024 report.

“Carolina has [a] strong reputation, passionate supporters and internal and external challenges,” reads a top-line description of the analysis.

The university’s strengths, Brunswick found, are that it is a “transformational leader in education, research, technology, finance, athletics and healthcare” and that it has “growing demand, passionate stakeholders and high national rankings,” among others.

As both an opportunity and a threat, Brunswick found the university has an “ambitious agenda that will require both difficult decisions and close coordination among many units.” Also included as a threat is that the university is facing a “polarized” environment at the state and national levels.

The report also listed several weaknesses of the university:

• “Decentralized organization with diffuse priorities and cumbersome decision-making;” 
• “Highly visible academic freedom issues;”
• “Governance controversies and executive turnover has eroded confidence in the quality and effectiveness of central University communications;
• and “erosion in identity of values, missions and impact.”

The top themes that emerged from Brunswick’s interviews with stakeholders are also included in the report. The findings included concerns about “ongoing controversies and leadership changes” at the university and a “weakened ability to project a positive image,” as well as how campus officials were equipped to handle and respond to those issues. Among other suggestions, interview subjects identified a need to highlight the benefits UNC offers to the state.

The university has experienced several high-profile controversies over the past decade-plus, among them: its athletic scandal, the debate over the fate of the Silent Sam Confederate monument and the battle over whether journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones would be offered tenure.

Many of the controversies have involved politics.

Ever since Republicans took control of the state legislature in 2011, and especially since they seized more appointment powers from the governor in 2016, faculty groups, Democrats and others have criticized what they see as political interference and conservative leanings on university boards. Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper blamed “meddling from legislative appointees” for the departure of Roberts’ predecessor last year to become president of Michigan State University. That chancellor, Kevin Guskiewicz, had told faculty at Michigan State that he would only take the job there if there was no “undue interference” from the university board.

To address its findings, Brunswick suggested revamping the university’s vice chancellor for communications role and enhancing communications to “amplify” the priorities of Roberts and the broader university.

Consulting on leadership communications

After the parties’ initial agreement expired, UNC signed a new contract with Brunswick beginning this January and running through June, records show. The monthly retainer fee was $60,000 per month during that period.

Under the new agreement, Brunswick was tasked with providing “guidance on strategic communications and media plans and inbound media inquiries” and “advice and counsel to the Chancellor and senior leadership.”

Brunswick in the October report suggested the university’s efforts to develop “leadership communications” should include — among other tactics — “building a state, national and global platform” and becoming a “leader in higher education policy and advocacy, with particular focus on the impact of flagship public research universities like Carolina.”

Valerio Parrot, who noted she didn’t know specific details about the relationship between Brunswick and UNC, said it’s common for firms to focus on such work for campus leaders.

“They focus on a portfolio that is much broader than just words on a page or talking points,” she said. “They really work on leadership topics, and they focus on the relationship and in the intersection of leadership and communications.”

In late February of this year, Brunswick associate Katie Dominick emailed Lucy Dunderdale Cate, Roberts’ deputy chief of staff, and Beth Keith, senior associate vice chancellor of communications, a list of nine “potential in-person events to consider for Chancellor Roberts to target in the coming years.” The events included the Forbes Global CEO Conference, SXSW EDU and the World Economic Forum.

“As we work with you to build out the Chancellor’s communications strategy, we can adjust as needed,” Dominick wrote.

In early April, Keith informed Dominick of a “priority order” of the events, which ranked the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., first.

“In addition to speaking or attending, we would be interested in hosting meet ups for Carolina alumni at some of these,” Keith wrote.

Brunswick associate Katie Dominick responded: “… we will work on building out these events and opportunities.”

In early March, Schoenfeld sent an email to Keith and Dunderdale Cate identifying a “potential high value target” for the chancellor to consider: an interview with a journalist — an “old friend” of Schoenfeld’s, he wrote — from the Financial Times.

“He’d be interested in talking with Lee at some point about leading a public university through the current national political turmoil,” Schoenfeld wrote.

Dunderdale Cate called the possibility “exciting” in her reply and said she’d like to discuss it more.

Finding a new communications leader

The university also paid Brunswick $70,000 to support the search for a new vice chancellor for communications. Among other tasks, the firm’s work on the search included advising campus officials on the job description before it was posted and leading some candidate interviews, email records on the topic show.

Kamrhan Farwell, who became vice chancellor in 2022, left UNC in April for a similar role at Boston University.

Previously, as detailed in the October report, Brunswick suggested a plan for “realigning” the position to be the university’s “principal communications, marketing and reputation officer.”

In late April, ahead of interviews for the revamped position, Dunderdale Cate provided this statement for campus human resources staff to send candidates: “The Brunswick Group has worked with UNC-Chapel Hill in supporting the chancellor’s communications and has been assisting the committee in this search. They will interview the candidate and also share their perspective on the challenges and opportunities facing the university.”

The search resulted in the hiring of Dean Stoyer, a communications executive whose experience comes primarily from the athletic sector, having worked for Nike, the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and a NASCAR team.

The university often uses external groups when conducting searches for new officials. To conduct the search that resulted in Roberts’ hiring as chancellor, for instance, the university hired Parker Executive Search of Atlanta for $250,000, according to records previously obtained by The N&O. NC State University later used the same firm to hire its new chancellor, Kevin Howell.

Asked about Brunswick’s work for UNC by The N&O last month, Roberts noted the university uses “a range of third-party firms whether it’s for legal services or consulting services or PR services.”

“We try to be judicious about that. We try and use internal resources wherever we can. But I think, like all of our peers, there are times when we feel the need to add third-party help,” he said.

Best said Brunswick will continue providing its services to UNC “at a 50% reduced monthly retainer” through 2025. By the end of the year, then, the university is likely to have paid more than $1 million for the firm’s work.

Reporters Shelby Swanson and Jadyn Watson-Fisher contributed.