A United Educators analysis and related reporting show colleges faced hundreds of millions in settlements during 2025 across sexual-abuse, antitrust, cybersecurity and pandemic-era claims. The largest single disclosed settlement involved Columbia University and NewYork‑Presbyterian Hospital at $750 million tied to historical abuse; Michigan State and several other institutions also paid multi‑million dollar settlements tied to campus violence and alleged overcharges for remote instruction. Concurrently, reporting shows the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights opened far fewer sexual-violence investigations under current leadership, even as a backlog of more than 25,000 civil-rights complaints remains. Advocates and legal counsel warn reduced federal enforcement may push more students toward private litigation and could alter institutional risk calculus on Title IX compliance and reporting practices. Risk managers and general counsel say campuses should tighten incident response, preserve records, and re-examine insurance and reserve policies as the mix of federal oversight and private litigation shifts.