Dartmouth College did not need the round of controversial headlines that were about to come its way nor the cascade that was surely to follow. Only weeks in office as president, Philip Hanlon found his back to the wall. What had happened and so early on his watch? While Hanlon confronted presidential challenges at the very outset of his tenure, John Sexton was deep into his time at New York University (NYU) when he was forced to grapple with faculty upheaval. Sexton was in the middle of the transition from appointment to inauguration as president of New York University when the September 11th, 2001, attacks rained horror and debris over the university. There could be no more inauspicious moment to start a university presidency. The author--an expert on college presidency--weighs in on challenges facing Philip Hanlon of Dartmouth College and John Sexton of NYU in this article.