University leaders must resist the urge to make snap judgements in a world where social media has accelerated the pace of discourse, the ߣߣÊÓƵ World Academic Summit has heard.

Cheryl Regehr, provost of the University of Toronto, said university executives often felt ¡°enormous pressure¡± to make decisions ¡°after the first tweet comes out¡±. But they should think carefully before proceeding, she told the event, hosted by the University of Sydney.

¡°We need to work deliberatively to make sure that we have the information to make good decisions,¡± Professor Regehr said. ¡°If we don¡¯t gather that information, we¡¯re going to be making a decision and then we¡¯ll have to take that decision back.

¡°We¡¯re going to have to make another decision; we¡¯re just going to keep on changing; and we¡¯ll lose credibility.¡±

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She said a predecessor had warned her that things had changed when she took her current job. ¡°¡®When I was provost,¡¯ he said, ¡®I would get a letter, I would think about the letter, I would write a letter back, I¡¯d wait a couple of weeks, somebody would write a letter back. In the meantime we were able to make a decision.¡¯¡±

Professor Regehr continued: ¡°We all know¡­that¡¯s not how it operates now. We have great leaders on our boards of directors, who come from many, many sectors outside of higher ed, and they say, ¡®Why can you not just get that done right away? Why are you asking all these people about it?¡¯ Because that¡¯s how universities operate. We operate on the basis of collegial governance. If we feel pressured to move too quickly, and we lose collegial governance¡­then we will have lost trust.¡±

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Misha Schubert,?chief executive of representative body Science and Technology ߣߣÊÓƵ, said universities should focus on their core values in moments of crisis, and hailed the ¡°power of a good holding statement¡± to buy leaders thinking time.

Simone Clarke,?chief executive of gender equity champions UN Women ߣߣÊÓƵ, said leaders needed to remind themselves to slow down, ¡°take time, give time and listen to people¡±.

She added: ¡°If I¡¯m always harried and bouncing from one thing to another, that¡¯s¡­the discipline that my team learn from me, and that doesn¡¯t do any of us a service.¡±

THE¡¯s chief global affairs officer, Phil Baty, cited a King¡¯s College London humanities professor¡¯s counterpoint to the ¡°move quickly and break things¡± mantra of Silicon Valley. ¡°Universities move slowly and fix things,¡± ran the professor¡¯s epithet, he said.

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Professor Regehr said it was important to remember that ¡°not everything is an emergency¡±, and crisis plans needed to distinguish between genuine emergencies ¡°versus some people are upset¡±.

¡°You need to have different strategies for different types of events, and make sure that those are clearly articulated,¡± she added. ¡°Otherwise, we treat everything as a fire where people are dying.¡±

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com