system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do presidents and CEOs typically resign after a controversy instead of staying or being fired? Like for a example a while back the president of a university resigned after hate symbols appeared around the campus why didn’t he stay?
gpt
So the reason for the departure is that it allows the institution to blame them and move on. The university can say "It was the president's fault, we will move forward and improve", even though it's possible they do nothing afterwards it gives the appearance of action.

The reason why they usually aren't fired is because it's seen as a courtesy to allow someone to resign. Getting fired is really bad for their future prospects as a job and allowing them to publicly say they voluntarily resigned allows them to save face.