Three senior Virginia state senators warned the University of Virginia leadership that signing the federal compact would risk the school's state funding, framing the White House proposal as an "unprecedented federal intrusion" into institutional autonomy. The senators cited recent administration pressure on UVA leadership and flagged compact provisions they said would disrupt financial and academic planning, including limits on tuition and caps on international enrollment. On other campuses, organized campus groups mobilized against the compact. At Vanderbilt, more than 900 students, faculty and staff signed a petition urging university leaders to refuse the deal; faculty chapters of national unions and AAUP chapters circulated statements opposing the compact. Local activism and state-level threats create a two-front pressure campaign that trustees and presidents must weigh ahead of October deadlines. The combined events put public-research universities in a bind: accept preferential federal treatment with new operational conditions or risk political and funding blowback. Boards, state lawmakers, and campus governance bodies are now central actors in the immediate negotiation over institutional autonomy and federal leverage.