The White House distributed a proposed "Compact for Academic Excellence" to nine research universities, offering preferential federal research access in exchange for sweeping conditions, and set a fast deadline for institutional responses. The document would require tuition freezes, caps on international undergraduates, public audits of campus viewpoints, and other governance changes. University leaders received the package with little lead time and began internal reviews. In Virginia, three Democratic state senators — Scott Surovell, L. Louise Lucas and Mamie Locke — publicly urged University of Virginia leadership to reject the compact and warned that agreeing to the terms would jeopardize future state funding. The senators described provisions such as audits of campus viewpoints and mandates on academic units as an "unprecedented federal intrusion into institutional autonomy and academic freedom." Their letter cited the recent ouster of UVA’s president as a cautionary example of federal pressure. University administrators across the nine targeted campuses are juggling legal reviews and stakeholder pushback while weighing potential advantages — higher overhead and earmarked grants — against constraints that governance and faculty leaders say could erode academic independence. For higher-education leaders, the compact creates a decision point where short-term funding incentives are explicitly tied to operational conditions that many view as politically charged.