The University of Montana’s presidential search drew unusually high interest, a sign of intense competition for campus leadership this year. That development comes as higher‑education governance experts and trade groups flag new and underappreciated risks for boards and presidents. An AGB column highlighted a constellation of risks—financial, regulatory and reputational—that governance bodies may be underestimating. Trustees conducting leadership searches must now weigh candidate experience against novel pressures including enrollment volatility, state political intervention, and data and AI governance demands. Boards should expect heightened public scrutiny and complex onboarding tasks for new presidents, including immediate fiscal triage and stakeholder engagement to steady campuses amid external headwinds.