State legislatures and federal funding choices are reshaping what colleges may teach and who gets support. A PEN America study found record state-level censorship laws restricting campus speech and curricula in 2025, while the National Endowment for the Humanities — under a new leadership aligned with conservative priorities — announced $75.1 million in grants favoring Western‑canon and conservative-aligned projects. PEN America documented 21 enacted bills across 15 states limiting academic freedom and creating new compliance risks for faculty and administrators; examples include bans on DEI offices and restrictions on teaching ‘‘divisive concepts.’’ At the same time, the NEH’s grant round prioritized projects many critics say align with a conservative cultural agenda, prompting debate over federal influence on humanities curricula. Campus leaders now confront a two‑front political reality: state laws that can restrict classroom content and federal grant allocations that reshape which scholarly projects receive funding, producing new reputational and governance dilemmas for universities.