The vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State (UFS) described how leadership decisions will need to shift after violent student protests disrupted operations across UFS campuses. Hester Klopper said unrest in the prior year included arson attacks and vandalism tied to new student registration requirements requiring settlement of outstanding tuition debts. Klopper said the scale and violence of protests—including spillover to universities in the region such as Fort Hare, Cape Town, and Witwatersrand—caught leadership “off guard,” while also emphasizing that protest rights exist within South Africa’s constitution. She pointed to the challenge of balancing engagement with campus security and community safety. The UFS leader said one operational takeaway is that leaders “can never, ever engage too much,” particularly by identifying which local stakeholders have influence during disruption—an approach she said was harder for the rural Qwaqwa campus, where the university’s role in jobs, transport, electricity, and housing is central.