College students are beginning classes amidst a challenging intersection of evolving university policies and unsettling signals from the Trump administration about campus protests and activities.

In conversations with The Hill, some students describe the administration’s actions as having a freezing effect on campus life, while others hope for a more peaceful academic year than before.

“On one hand, we’re still college students. We’re glad to be back, but there’s this ongoing worry: This administration shows little regard for higher education. In fact, it almost seems intent on dismantling it,” said Zaid Youssef, a third-year law student at the University of California, Berkeley.

Following the 2024 pro-Palestinian demonstrations and President Trump’s hard stance on universities, campuses now encounter varied conditions.

Youssef pointed out that students at Berkeley have witnessed a hold on $500 million in funding by the Trump administration and observed their chancellor being scolded during a July congressional hearing, where one professor was labeled an antisemite.

This situation is compounded by a shift in attitude from University of California officials, Youssef noted, following last year’s revisions to protest rules after confrontations between police and pro-Palestinian protestors.

“There’s no denying that the Trump administration has escalated, and that Berkeley specifically has responded to these escalations under the Trump administration,” he added.  

The University of California did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.  

Three thousand miles away, students at American University face a different reality. The Washington, D.C., school has not been directly targeted by the Trump administration, but life in the nation’s capital has taken on a different shape after Trump called in the National Guard.  

Steven Mendell, a student at American, says while policies regarding protests and other issues have not been highly impacted, Trump’s policies in D.C. are hitting close to campus and worrying students.

“All this stuff is happening where Trump is having a hand on the city, and so students are having a sense of this tension and pressure that they wouldn’t necessarily face in other places in the country, because Trump is actively here with measures of oppression,” Mendell said.  

“And also, there’s a lot of opportunities that students aren’t necessarily getting the same chance, that they might have before Trump,” he added, such as internships lost to the administration’s cuts at the federal government.

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.

Daniela Colombi, a student at the University of Maryland, lamented the national situation where she says universities are adding “repressive rules” against pro-Palestinian causes.  

Restrictions have been placed in universities across the country on times students are allowed to gather and when speakers are permitted, as well as increased punishments for disobeying the rules.

Some of these policies have been pushed by the Trump administration, which has made stiffer disciplinary actions a demand in every deal it has made with colleges to restore paused federal funding.  

“I would say students are starting to come back pretty awake about Palestine, about the growing repression across the board, by this administration and by the respective universities, but also with a renewed or strengthened desire to learn about Palestine and act and try to contribute to stopping the genocide,” Colombi added. 

And pro-Palestinian activists aren’t the only ones affected by the new policies.

Students in Texas are suing after restrictions on campus activities were passed by the state Legislature after the 2024 protests. The new law bans “expressive activities” between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m., as well as prohibiting student groups from certain activities the last two weeks of classes. 

Juke Matthews, the committee chair of FOCUS, a college Catholic ministry group, at the University of Texas at Dallas said he joined the lawsuit because restrictions on when speakers can come to campus will disrupt his organization’s ability to have priests speak to students.  

“I think it’s scary, because we feel as though it might mean by the last two weeks of the semester, we can’t have pastors on the campus, or after 10 p.m.,” Matthews said, emphasizing that meetings later at night are crucial for students’ participation. 

The Hill has reached out to the University of Texas at Dallas for comment.  

The lawsuit is led by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a group that has gone after schools for alleged violations of free speech against both right- and left-wing causes. 

Adam Steinbaugh, senior attorney for FIRE, said, “The best thing students can do is learn about what their rights are and what they are not, because if you know what your rights are, then you can recognize when the government is infringing on them, but if you don’t know your rights, you’re not going to be able to know that, and you’re not going to be able to stand up for yourself.”

Amid all the chaos, some students are just hoping for a more normal year.  

Up in New York, Columbia University and its students have seen almost unending chaos since their highly publicized pro-Palestinian protests, including the resignation of their president, Trump withholding some $400 million in federal funding, the resignation of their interim president and then a deal to restore the federal funding that has been heavily criticized by higher education advocates.

“There were three or four protests last year that disrupted normal life, but I wouldn’t say there were any more than that, which obviously is more than I would have necessarily expected when I first came here, but a lot fewer compared to what happened two years ago. So I’m hoping that this year just continues as normal, and I have high hopes that it will,” said Micah Gritz, a Columbia student.  

“My hope, personally, is just that Columbia can stay out of the news as much as we can for all sorts of reasons. I hope the government doesn’t continue to go after us, and I also hope that there aren’t that many protests and just to create a more normal environment for everyone,” Gritz added.