ABSTRACT
Acrisis on campus can result from a natural disaster or human action, and it can occur suddenly and unexpectedly or arise from a long-simmering issue. Hurricanes, fires, active shooters, virulent flu, Medicaid fraud, wide-scale cheating, scientific misconduct, and sexual molestation are among the recent crises that have plagued higher education institutions. Creating and developing a team that can respond to any crisis requires the same leadership skills and foresight as leading a complex organization: trust, candor, and communication. a crisis highlights and exaggerates a team’s inefficiencies and gaps that may be less apparent under normal circumstances. Any dysfunctions a president senses in the leadership team prior to a crisis will inevitably magnify during an emergency. An effective crisis response team will always display trust and candor forged in shared crisis management experiences—even if the crisis is manufactured in a tabletop drill.
