Universities faced fresh faculty-governance tests: a faculty panel unanimously ruled Texas A&M wrong to fire a professor over a gender-identity lesson, and an arbitrator ordered Portland State to reinstate ten nontenure-track faculty laid off without required shared-governance procedures. Both decisions underscore legal and contractual limits on administrative authority during fiscal retrenchment. Administrations that have enacted rapid program cuts or layoffs without consultation now face enforceable pushback. The Portland State ruling in particular spotlights collective-bargaining language that protects continuous appointments and requires adherence to shared-governance steps before terminations tied to curricular change. Institutional leaders should audit layoff protocols, document shared‑governance engagement, and brief boards on legal exposure; unions and faculty senates will likely press for formalized consultation practices before additional retrenchment moves.