Some crises arrive in higher education with no proximal warning, while others might be seen coming from more of a distance. The COVID pandemic fits the latter category, of a crisis that was seen coming but which arrived with velocity and ferocity never seen on such a universal, global scale. A theme that cuts across crises is the uncountable cost of grief, loss, and betrayal. In this article, the authors uses the example of Michigan State University's (MSU) appalling response to allegations (later proven true) that one of its physicians had for decades sexually abused hundreds of girls and women. There is evidence, some still disputed, that institutional leaders could have acted differently in ways that might have stopped the criminal abuser; and there is indisputable evidence that the board of trustees and then-president mishandled the situation once it surfaced, inflicting additional pain on survivors and exposing a campus leadership culture of secrecy, bullying, and hubris. The author shares four lessons learned from the MSU crisis that resonate in the response to the pandemic.