Nearly all senior college leaders reported that federal policymaking has injected new uncertainty into institutional planning, the American Council on Education’s pulse surveys show. Presidents and provosts cited threats to research funding, visa policies for international students, and probes into campus practices as immediate drivers of budgetary and operational changes. The report names research funding, immigration, academic freedom and student aid as the top policy stressors shaping decisions across campuses. College presidents echoed the survey’s findings, saying political interference and shifting federal priorities have forced short-term cost-cutting and contingency planning. Leaders described delayed hiring, revised fundraising assumptions and curtailed international engagement as direct responses. The ACE data frames these developments as broad-based—nearly all respondents reported at least some planning disruption—and signals persistent tactical risk for institutions reliant on federal grants and enrollment from abroad. For campus CFOs and boards, the development matters because it converts policy volatility into near-term financial exposure: interrupted grant flows and threats to federal aid programs can require rapid reallocation of reserves and tighten liquidity. The accounts named in the surveys also document how academic autonomy concerns are feeding into operational choices at scale.