In the first half of the year, 16 states enacted 22 bills designed to censor higher education, according to an analysis released Thursday by PEN America, a free expression group.

According to PEN America’s count, 21 states have enacted bills that censor higher education since 2021, with nearly 40% of the U.S. population now living in a state with such a policy.

The researchers noted that while headlines have often focused on threats to higher ed from the federal government, including research funding cuts, the news out of state legislatures has been “just as devastating.”

Legislation to censor higher ed takes different forms, according to PEN America’s analysis.

The measures include what researchers call “educational gag orders,” meaning laws designed to dictate “what can and cannot be taught in the college or university classroom,” according to the analysis. Lawmakers have also pursued legislation to restrict diversity, equity and inclusion offices and undermine academic freedom indirectly, such as by weakening tenure protections, PEN America said.

These types of censorship of higher education often overlap, the researchers suggested. Four state bills were enacted so far in 2025 both restrict DEI and classroom speech, according to the analysis.

They include a new law enacted in Mississippi in April. Among other provisions, the legislation broadly bars DEI initiatives in public colleges and schools.

It also specifically prohibits public colleges and K-12 schools from engaging in or requiring diversity training. The law defines that as any training — formal or informal — designed to raise “awareness or understanding of issues related to race, sex, color, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion or national origin.”

Yet, the researchers wrote, this provision did not exempt academic instruction, “the very purpose of which is to increase awareness and understanding.”

The provision, however, is on hold for now. A federal judge recently paused it and other major parts of the law, ruling that accounts from educators in a lawsuit against the legislation suggest “possible widespread suppression of speech.”

Read the full article about censoring higher education by Natalie Schwartz at Higher Ed Dive.