Welcome to a New Year

Dear Dartmouth community,

It's a wonderful time of year to be in Hanover, with ample opportunities to ski and skate (or to learn how) and Winter Carnival only a month away. I hope the break was restful and that you are looking forward, as I am, to a new term full of opportunities to learn together and to care for one another. 

Building off a year of progress on Commitment to Care, student mental health remains a top priority in programming as well as scholarship. Research by Dartmouth economist Danny Blanchflower has inspired the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report Office to bring experts and policymakers from around the world to Dartmouth later this year to discuss new data showing decreases in global happiness—especially among young people. Similarly, the work of Lisa Marsch, Andrew Campbell, Nicholas Jacobson, and their teams promises technological innovations to improve health and wellness through behavioral change.

Cultivating a community that is open to and respectful of differences in opinion—and that greets those interactions as moments to learn and grow—will also remain a priority this year. Dartmouth's new policy on institutional restraint, announced last month, set out to address when the university should speak on behalf of its many constituents. As I wrote in the Wall Street Journal, it is when the institution—as well as its academic departments and institutes—exercise restraint in making statements that individual students, faculty, and staff can fully explore and voice opinions that may be contrary to the majority view. This is how we preserve a learning environment where the best ideas prevail. I am grateful to the Committee on Institutional Statements, led by Professor John Carey, for its thoughtful report, which was accepted by the Steering Committee of the General Faculty and endorsed by the Board of Trustees.

I anticipate that many of you will have questions about the new policy and that some of you may disagree with the approach. It is exactly this kind of dissent by the individuals in our community that the committee set out to protect. Prof. Carey and Provost Dave Kotz will meet with deans and chairs of departments, programs, centers, and institutes this term to discuss how the policy applies to their units. They will also hold a session for students. I look forward to a similarly robust discussion about the forthcoming report from the Committee on Freedom of Expression and Dissent, chaired by Professor Sam Levey, which clarifies and updates current policies related to students' expressive activities. 

Once again, Dartmouth Dialogues programming will help our community dissect society's thorniest issues. The 2025 Special Topics Series—in which faculty partner with the Dialogue Project to offer courses and events—will tackle immigration and borders. Leading that work are faculty members in Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies: Desirée Garcia and Matthew Garcia. The series will feature a Jan. 13 panel on U.S. immigration policy and a cinematic fiction conference, and the Dialogue Project will also host a public conversation with Braver Angels senior fellow Mónica Guzmán on Feb. 25, among other events. Students, faculty, staff, and alumni will be invited to participate in StoryCorps' One Small Step program, returning to campus in February to record conversations between community members whose politics differ. The student-led, nonpartisan Dartmouth Political Union will host debates on capitalism versus socialism and differing perspectives on DEI.

These are just a few of the ways we fulfill our core mission of teaching and research, bringing a diversity of voices to bear on the most important issues we face, and training the next generation of global leaders. The outcome of our first early decision cycle since reinstating testing as part of a holistic admissions process serves as a reminder that we continue to excel in undergraduate education. And I take pride in our graduate students driving impact and innovation on Earth and in space.

I am confident 2025 will be another strong year for Dartmouth, as we meet even more milestones across housing and sustainability, career and professional development, and academic excellence—including the highly anticipated reopening of the Hopkins Center for the Arts this fall. I look forward to engaging with you this year. Each of our interactions gives me a richer sense of our community and the role each of you play in sustaining it. My office hours for students remain open, and please say hello if you see me on campus.

With best wishes,

Sian Leah Beilock

President