College and university classrooms, curricula, and credentials have always been an ideological battleground of clashing values and perspectives that shift the answers to the question of what the learning environment should be. A crucible moment of legislative attacks on diversity initiatives, congressional interventions into university leadership, and student protests across the country highlight many avenues through which students, institutional leaders, and policy makers attempt to shape discourse and learning reflective of their ideologies. In this article, the authors call attention to the multiple ways ideologies are manifested by how people structure and distribute learning opportunities in the United States. The authors offer an illustrative framework, coupled with examples from their own research, to draw attention to the multiple contexts in which ideological battles regularly occur and coalesce into the ultimate learning environment.