President Trump signed Congress’ budget reconciliation bill into law following its passage in the U.S. House. Among other impacts, it introduced a tiered system that imposes a tax rate of 4% on institutions like Dartmouth that have an endowment value of $750,000 to $2 million per student. That is nearly triple the 1.4% rate paid on net investment income by Dartmouth and its peers today.

Despite the endowment’s role in powering Dartmouth’s academic mission and its deep economic and educational impact on the region—funding everything from financial aid and research to new infrastructure—we are now one of 15 universities that face a financial penalty that the vast majority of higher education institutions do not. We are continuing to conduct financial modeling to assess the long-term impact of the increase.

The U.S. State Department announced a policy of expanded screening and vetting of F and J visa applicants that includes a review of individuals’ social media presence. Dartmouth’s Office of Visa and Immigration Services wrote current and incoming international students to ensure they are aware of the policy and shared important reminders about scheduling those appointments and more general travel guidance.

We expect that the policy may result in longer visa appointment wait times and increased processing time. Therefore, we continue to solicit regular updates from our incoming students, in particular, about the status of their application process and their plans to travel to Dartmouth to initiate their studies.

Provost David Kotz filed a supplemental declaration of harm to support the American Council of Learned Societies lawsuit seeking to overturn grant terminations at the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The declaration provides greater details of the four NEH grants cancelled at Dartmouth and how the loss of funding is negatively impacting the career of the individual faculty as well as humanities scholarship at the College. 

President Sian Beilock spent the day on Capitol Hill advocating for the value of higher education and federally-funded research. She emphasized the consequential impacts of a dramatic endowment tax increase with Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Susan Collins (R-ME), discussed the need for better housing and child care options in New Hampshire with Reps. Maggie Goodlander (D-NH) and Chris Pappas (D-NH), and reconnected with Dartmouth alumni Sens. Angus King ’66 (I-ME) and Tina Smith T ’84 (D-MN).

Dartmouth joined several peer institutions in filing an amicus brief in support of Harvard’s lawsuit against multiple federal agencies and arguing for continued investment and university partnerships in scientific research. As outlined in the brief, universities leverage the funding received through highly competitive federal awards, in synergy with large investments of our own, to drive scientific discoveries, improve lives, and build economies. We also notified members of the Dartmouth community—faculty, staff, graduate students, and alumni—of this action.