Groundswell and Politics...Easy Way to Loose Your Job?

"The lessons of the Penn State abuse scandal are clear: university officials, at the highest level, are responsible for safeguarding the welfare of our students, and must be held accountable for their failure to do so."

This is a line from a letter from the Rutgers Faculty to their governing board, demanding the resignation of University President Robert Barchi

Ever since this latest incident occurred and hit the news cycle, I've been wondering a lot about the responsibilities of administrators.

I've been watching as individuals, over the past year or so, on campuses are being reprimanded for a variety of incidents. From Penn State to now Rutgers University, in particular coaches, are being caught for illegal, unethical, or unprofessional attitudes.

As it should be, these individuals are being reprimanded, fire, let go and the proper legal action is being taken. However, it is not stopping there. As in the letter from the Rutgers faculty, higher administrators are being held accountable to the point of being asked for their resignations.

I find that some of this is very political and some of this is just a frenzy and groundswell from social media. So, I'm wondering at what point does the accusation stop and the re-habilitation start? As a far future administrator for the Student Affairs field, I feel that any decision one makes could come back to haunt you, whether it was good or bad. And many times when there is a gain in one place, there is a loss somewhere else. So at what point in time can the whole picture be taken into consideration in regards to accusing administrators and demanding their resignations?

The Penn State and Rutgers Presidents are being asked to step down in extremely different situations. I feel that with Rutgers, its more of a political move rather than a purposeful move.

Not totally sure what my final opinion on this will be, and still thinking this through, but, this is just where I'm at with my thought process for right now. :)