Saint Augustine’s University told the Education Department it wants to 'participate in and help shape' the Trump administration’s proposed 'compact' but requested mission‑sensitive accommodations for HBCUs, citing concerns about caps on international students, limits on race‑conscious policies, and a five‑year tuition freeze. The private HBCU framed its interest as conditional and asked for dialogue to avoid unintended consequences that could threaten institutional survival. At the same time, reporting shows many public universities are withholding responses or resisting records requests tied to the compact; flagship publics have been slow to engage and, in some cases, are actively refusing to discuss the proposal. The split underscores a widening divide: a few institutions are negotiating for preferential grant access in exchange for policy changes, while most public systems and research universities are reluctant to trade institutional autonomy for political concessions.