As people feel increasingly powerless and frustrated, public humiliation is quickly becoming the weapon of choice to speak truth to power. Publicly challenging campus leadership has always been part of the fabric of campus life. But where those incidents were once episodic, they are becoming increasingly frequent.

As more leaders in higher education are being called to task, we have to come to the realization that public humiliation is becoming a condition of leadership in higher education. What can we learn from such incidents, and how can we use them as stepping stones for individual and institutional growth?