There was a time when crises on college and university campuses were relatively rare. Much has changed, and it has changed quite rapidly. Rather than being isolated incidents requiring the sole attention of presidents, chancellors, or communication professionals, the proliferation of crises across campuses means that crisis leadership has now become fundamental to the work of university personnel across levels, disciplines, and institutions. Drawing upon the findings of forty interviews with senior leaders from ten major research universities across the United States and a content analysis of over one thousand articles from a variety of news outlets, Crisis Leadership in Higher Education presents a theory-informed framework for academic and administrative leaders who must navigate the institutional and environmental crises that are most germane to institutions of higher education. The perspectives offered in this book remind us that it is in the chaos and uncertainty of crisis that leadership becomes most visible and most critical.

Given the many pressures facing leaders across higher education, the work of crisis leadership remains an imperative for leaders at all levels. Attention tends to center on strategies for engaging in leadership both prior to and during crisis, often leaving the post-crisis period as an afterthought. This book introduces a research-informed framework for this critical, and often neglected, phase of crisis leadership. With an underlying commitment to values-based, principle-oriented, and people-centered practices, this framework consists of five leadership practices that are recognized as especially critical in the aftermath of crisis: (a) encourage learning, (b) inspire growth, (c) stimulate meaning making, (d) pursue reinvention, and (e) advance renewal. Communication serves a critical role in each of the various dimensions of post-crisis leadership, and it is a communication orientation that can help to inform the paradoxes, processes, and patterns that arise during these periods of immense tension and, at times, transcendence.