A wave of high‑profile rejections accelerated this week as multiple research universities publicly declined the administration’s funding compact. Institutions including Penn, MIT, Brown and several others signaled that tying federal research priorities to operational or curricular conditions would threaten institutional autonomy and peer‑review standards. University statements emphasized merit‑based research funding and academic independence; presidents provided formal notices to the Department of Education and, in some cases, detailed feedback on problematic compact provisions. The refusals have widened the rift between the administration and selective research campuses and prompted coordination among university consortia responding to federal outreach. The dispute now moves beyond public statements: expect litigation risk, intensified lobbying to Congress, and potential changes to how federal grants are awarded if the administration persists with conditional incentives.