Saint Augustine’s University, a financially strained HBCU in North Carolina, told the Education Department it is willing to “participate in and help shape” the administration’s proposed Compact for Academic Excellence but demanded mission-sensitive accommodations. The university cited concerns that compact provisions—on race-conscious admissions, international student caps and tuition freezes—could conflict with HBCU statutory mandates and survival needs. Reporting shows Saint Augustine’s is the first historically Black college to express conditional interest; most institutions have declined. University leaders emphasized the need for dialogue on provisions that could undermine MSIs’ missions, even as they signaled openness to improvements in accountability and academic excellence. The episode highlights the political calculus HBCUs face: potential preferential access to federal opportunities versus the risk of adopting terms that could impair enrollment, funding and legally protected mission-driven practices.