Recent moves to limit how gender and race are taught in some states and campuses have led to faculty discipline, classroom disputes, and suspended student outlets. Universities are seeing guidance that restricts course content—examples include bans on teaching more than two genders at one campus—and instructors have faced student complaints and administrative action. At the University of Alabama, alumni offered to fund two student magazines after administrators suspended them, illustrating how outside donors are stepping in amid escalating campus tensions. Free‑speech and academic‑freedom advocates warn policies and punitive responses risk chilling classroom discussion and scholarly independence.