A free and unconstrained academic sector is typically assumed to be critical for the development and preservation of democracy. Conversely, political attacks against universities are a sign of democratic backsliding. How do U.S. universities as the main institutions of higher education respond to increasing attacks from the Trump administration? Rather than focusing on individual, prominent incidents covered in the media (such as those involving Harvard University), we deploy a new fine-grained measurement approach to uncover changes in the public communication of these institutions in response to political events. We study how an institution's behavior differs depending on university characteristics such as its disciplinary focus and private/public funding, but also on the political environment surrounding it. This analysis provides new insights into the changes in higher education caused by democratic backsliding.