The White House circulated a document called the Universities Compact in early Oct. 2025. It offered expanded federal research funding and other benefits to schools that adopted administration priorities. The outreach targeted an initial list of nine elite universities. MIT publicly rejected the compact first on Oct. 10, 2025, and several other universities followed through Oct. 20–21, 2025.

By Oct. 21, 2025, MIT, Brown, Dartmouth, the University of 🔔Pennsylvania, the University of Southern 🌴California, the University of 🏛️Virginia, and the University of 🌵Arizona had publicly declined to sign. Vanderbilt University and the University of 🤠Texas at Austin had not committed and expressed reservations. Some schools said they were protecting academic freedom and institutional independence. Others flagged legal and operational problems with the compact's terms.

The compact included specific policy conditions for signatories. Those provisions reportedly sought a 15% cap on international undergraduate enrollment and a freeze on tuition increases. It would have restricted consideration of race and sex in hiring and admissions and defined gender based on biological sex. The plan also proposed prioritizing grant awards and other federal support to universities that signed the compact.

The administration set a response window that asked for feedback by Oct. 20, 2025, and invited formal signings by Nov. 21, 2025. Universities said the compact tied federal funding to political alignment, which many viewed as a threat to academic freedom. The widespread refusals pressured the White House and raised questions about enforcing funding conditions.