In this critical discourse analysis, I explored the language used in "campus update" emails sent to faculty, staff, and students to better understand how university presidents communicate via email to institutional stakeholders. Specifically, I explored the use of effective stance, epistemic stance, and intersubjectivity in this corpus of emails from higher education presidents in 2020 and 2021, because their use can indicate a speaker's commitment to what they are saying as well as their accountability and responsibility for their words (Marín-Arrese, 2009, "Studies on English Modality." In honour of Frank R. Palmer, 111, (pp. 23-52). Peter Lang; 2011a, "Critical Discourse Studies in Context and Cognition," 193-223; 2011b, "Discourse Studies," 13(6), 789-797; 2015, "Discourse Studies," 17(2), 210-225). Altogether, I sought to develop a better understanding of what and how university presidents communicate to faculty, students, and staff and, notably, how that informed and illuminated power in higher education.