Universities and colleges in the U.S. are constantly mentioned in lists such as The Princeton Review's Top Party School list or similar rankings that can potentially impact the institution, as well as local news coverage regarding the institution's ranking and the drinking and partying habits of its student body. This study explores media coverage of party schools through a lens of framing and relationship management theories. Through a quantitative content analysis of news frames used in local news coverage of universities or colleges with noted "party school" reputations in the 2016 to 2017 academic school year, as well as frames represented in the official university responses, this study uncovers how universities with these noted reputations are framed by the local news media. In addition, the study explores the ways in which university responses to media coverage impact the potentially mutually-beneficial relationship between higher education institutions and its stakeholders, as it is a primary function of public relations (Kim et al., 2007). In order to examine the predominant frames used by local news media in college towns and "party school" university responses, frames of negative emotional appeal, morality, human interest and harm reduction were explored to determine their salience in written messages found in news headlines and university responses. The results of this study provide explanations to a phenomenon that largely impacts the reputation of a higher education institution in the U.S., as well as implications for the management of relationships between the media and universities.