Challenging the prevailing influence of whiteness in higher education curriculum, student activists across the United States have consistently demanded more offerings in African American, Chicanx, Asian, and Native American studies, dating at least back to the late 1960s. Conceptualizing the university as being founded on racial and settler logics, these Ethnic Studies courses envision education as a vehicle for collective transformation that is anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, and anti-racist. However, Ethnic Studies programs have consistently come under attack in higher education institutions. Following the 2024 election, Donald Trump and his administration have issued a series of executive orders attacking ethnic studies in an effort to censor teachings on race and systemic injustice. In response to this polarized political climate, our panel offers examples of how ethnic studies students and instructors have consistently responded to the attacks on ethnic studies, including Asian American Studies, by insisting on a more liberatory education. Our panel addresses the need for Ethnic Studies as a tool of resistance and self-determination at three different types of institutions of higher education: community colleges, Jesuit liberal arts colleges, and research universities.