Reported in the The Boston Globe over the weekend:

Allegations of systemic racism roil Boston Conservatory

By Linda Matchan Globe Correspondent,Updated June 21, 2020, 6:07 p.m.

Students and alumni of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee are calling out what they say is a longstanding culture of systemic racism at the school, and a white professor has resigned amid allegations that he mocked Black students and used racial slurs in the classroom for years.

An internal / external communications learning moment for all employers:

A catalyst for the anger roiling the top performing-arts college was a May 31 Facebook post by executive director Cathy Young, following the killings of George Floyd and others across the country. The post decried racism in general terms and articulated the school’s values which include: “We do not tolerate racism.”

Young’s post did not specifically address racism within the conservatory, which was a separate school until it merged with the Berklee College of Music in 2016. That prompted an outpouring from students and alumni on social media accusing the conservatory of hypocrisy and enumerating dozens of examples of bias, discrimination, insensitivity, and harassment.

Most tellingly: the failure of the school to effectively address this discriminatory and illegal conduct by ousting the professor years ago – not just because their internal communication did not match their recent external communication on discrimination, prompting students, alumni and faculty to subsequently call the school out on the hypocrisy of their internal communications and actions not matching their more recent external communications and actions.

How do you ensure that your organization’s internal harassment interventions effectively match your external communications (and complying with the law with regard to the former) in business and at work?