A newly launched Alliance for Higher Education announced it will coordinate legal, policy and public‑affairs work to defend colleges and universities from what members call government overreach. The coalition brings together presidents, trustees and advocacy groups to push back against federal and state actions that target campus governance, research funding and academic programming. The alliance said it would focus on protecting institutional autonomy, academic freedom and the integrity of shared governance, while also offering rapid response resources for campuses facing investigations, funding rescissions or politicized oversight. The group’s formation follows a string of high‑profile federal interventions, grant rescissions and state probes that university leaders say have undermined operational stability. Critics of the alliance argue the effort is a sectoral attempt to resist accountability reforms; supporters counter it’s a defensive response to unprecedented political pressure that threatens research, international collaboration and campus safety.