After interviewing more than 240 college and university presidents who were actively serving at the time of recording, The EdUp Experience co-founder and podcast host Joe Sallustio is stunned by the number who have since stepped down.

Executive leaders are locked in a relentless battle of resolve as financially strained institutions work to "re-prove" the value of higher education to increasingly skeptical student prospects, employers and the public.

"When decline and difficulty did come up, the president would describe the institution as resisting change or that innovation was being stifled," Sallustio says on The University Business Podcast. "Nobody wants to come on and talk about how they're in trouble."