College presidents are recalibrating when and how to issue public statements as political crises and campus protests mount. Panels at the AAC&U conference urged reticence and mission‑driven responses; presidents described a balance between moral leadership and preserving campus trust. That context frames Jennifer Mnookin’s appointment as Columbia’s next president after her tenure at UW‑Madison, where she negotiated with protesters and managed police involvement. Trustees tapped Mnookin to lead Columbia amid turnover and intense scrutiny of how elite universities handle protests and law‑enforcement responses. For boards and search committees, the Mnookin hire and deliberations about public statements highlight the governance tradeoffs facing flagship and Ivy institutions: crisis management, faculty governance friction and the reputational risks of either speaking out or staying silent.