Board and legislative actions are shaping leadership transitions and campus plans across multiple states. Ohio State’s sudden presidential resignation set off a rapid leadership shift—provost Ravi Bellamkonda was named president amid criticism about excluding faculty and students from the process. In Florida, lawmakers failed to advance a bill to transfer a University of South Florida satellite campus to New College of Florida, leaving the issue to budget negotiations and signaling a fraught interplay between political priorities and campus expansion plans. These episodes underscore intensified scrutiny of trustee decisions, presidential searches and state influence over public universities.