Higher Ed Counsel & Strategic Solutions

Student protests and campus programming will remain closely connected issues in Fall 2026. As many institutions of higher education know, protests, demonstrations, invited speakers, counterprogramming, and other expressive activities can emerge quickly and affect multiple parts of campus at once. These events often raise questions about speech, safety, space use, event management, and institutional neutrality. Summer is the best time to evaluate whether your college’s or university’s current policies and operational practices are prepared for that complexity before students return in the fall.

University foundations currently face a more complicated set of demands than in prior years. Fundraising and stewardship remain central, but those responsibilities now sit alongside increased legal and regulatory attention, heightened expectations for governance, greater public scrutiny, and calls for closer alignment with institutional strategy and risk management.

For many foundations, the key issue is not one discrete challenge; it is the overlap of several. Changes in the regulatory environment may coincide with pressure on university budgets, questions about endowment spending, cybersecurity concerns, evolving donor expectations, or sensitive campus concerns and issues of national importance. That convergence makes it important for foundations to think more broadly about governance, preparedness, and coordination.