Two university governance flashpoints surfaced this week. At the University of Arkansas, administrators moved to remove a tenured professor, Shirin Saeidi, from directorship duties and pursue termination over contentious public statements about Iran and Israel; Saeidi vowed to contest the action. In South Carolina, Clemson University dismissed an employee and removed two professors after a social-media backlash over posts after Charlie Kirk’s assassination. These cases underscore how political polarization, donor pressure and public campaigns are reshaping academic personnel decisions. Boards, provosts and legal teams must revisit faculty-discipline policies, shared governance protocols and crisis communications to ensure consistent processes that can withstand political scrutiny while protecting academic standards.