The University of North Carolina has spent more than $500,000 for public relations assistance in the wake of its academic fraud scandal, the Charlotte Observer reports.
Three weeks before a former governor would announce in a report that UNC Chapel Hill’s academic fraud scandal stretched as far back as the mid-1990s, a trio of public relations experts readied Chancellor Holden Thorp as part of a four-hour prep session that included handling likely questions from reporters.
It was part of a public relations and communications effort that ultimately cost the university more than $500,000 over the past two years.
The Fleishman-Hillard firm received $367,000 for 22 months of work; Doug Sosnik, a political consultant who is also a National Basketball Association official, received $144,000 for 10 months work; and Sheehan Associates of Washington, D.C., received nearly $20,000 for work performed on “two occasions,” a university official said.
The university’s privately funded foundation is picking up the tab.
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