bernie12 Emory has a problem. You seem to think that branding is the result of marketing expenditure, but there are different ways of achieving exposure and building a brand: Earned media, for one. Just look at Trump. Actually, forget Trump, look at Emory and the Ebola story. It was all over the news and lo and behold, applications jumped substantially. The sad thing is that Emory has just earned a tremendous amount of media exposure. Pretty much all of it mocking. What do you think the impact on the Emory brand will be when even Gawker says don’t go to Emory? What do you think Emory associations are now? Ironically, at the very time when Emory is about to pitch a bunch of students from RD to pick Emory over other schools.
You mention department closures and 3/5 controversy, but these were local stories without much resonance. In other words, they were irrelevant for the brand.
You seem to also think that some other scandals were as grave, but you are very mistaken. We don’t have to argue about, what should be the obvious thing, free speech here as a fundamental value of a university. You might disagree. The point is the practicalities involved. If I am supposed to pay the full ride to an expensive college, and yet I have to fear that my kid might get suspended, expelled or whatever, because he says something stupid (or not so stupid), then I will think hard where my money should go, no matter what my kid thinks.
Finally, just because others do the same, doesn’t mean that Emory will not be punished for it. Just, pour encourager les autres.
As to Wagner, the point is not to punish him as such. The point is to make a dramatic statement to break the narrative.