University leaders aren’t exactly having a pleasant fall semester. The recent well-publicized surge in student protests has not only forced the resignations of high-ranking college officials but also produced demands that university presidents, provosts, and deans are struggling to meet. These demands present serious challenges to leaders who, even if broadly sympathetic to many of their students’ concerns, are scrambling to decide what they can do — immediately and concretely — to calm the protesters outside their windows, stay true to core institutional values, avoid scathing press attention and social-media chatter, and save their jobs.

Originally published in The Chronicle of Higher Education on December 3, 2015.