Historical campuses like my own offer a throughline for generations of students and stability through changes in society and evolutions in knowledge. Few other institutions can claim this legacy. 

"We must defend the principles that caused us to enter leadership in the first place," the AAC&U president says. "It's not easy, and it might be that you need to resign, but we must defend this."

Higher education powerhouses abroad are slowly increasing their reputation as over two-thirds of American universities slipped, according to this year's international university ranking by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a global education strategy group.

Who would not love to be an executive? But if you want the "glamour," embrace the "rigor" that comes with the next level of campus responsibility.