At a meeting of the General Faculty on Nov. 10, President Sian Leah Beilock said Dartmouth has made important progress in several key areas despite unprecedented challenges for higher education.

As colleges and universities navigate controversies such as conflict in the Middle East, shifting funding models, a changing technological landscape, and threats to academic freedom, Americans are increasingly questioning the value proposition of higher education, President Beilock said.

“And yet we are proving here at Dartmouth, every day, that there is indeed another way forward. We can show the world what it looks like when one of the best institutions on earth doubles down on its academic mission,” she said.

The General Faculty meeting in the Hanover Inn Grand Ballroom was Beilock’s third ‘State of Dartmouth’ address since she took office in 2023. 

Evidence of this way forward can be found in Dartmouth’s progress on five key areas of strategic focus, Beilock said—including dialogue, mental health and well-being, innovation and impact, climate and the energy transition, and lifelong Dartmouth reflected in the promotion of career design for all students. 

Dartmouth Dialogues, which launched in January 2024 to promote respectful communication across differences, has helped set Dartmouth apart from its peers, she said.

She noted that 85% of Dartmouth students express confidence in their ability to engage respectfully with differing viewpoints, and 66% of first-year students said Dartmouth’s approach to dialogue was a significant reason why they chose to matriculate here.

“Dialogue is what happens in your classrooms everyday. I truly believe our teacher-scholar model creates the conditions for faculty to push students to think from different angles, perspectives, histories, and frames,” she said. 

“Over the past year, we’ve had nearly 15,000 people attend a Dartmouth Dialogues event on topics from the Middle East to immigration to polarization in America to Democratic socialism vs. capitalism. We’ve welcomed speakers from Mike Pence to Anita Hill to John Fetterman. We’ve created space for students with different backgrounds to come together, get to know each other, and see the other’s point of view,” she said. “Last year we reached one million people globally as we spread the word about our Dialogues programming.”

Calling support for mental health and well-being “the foundation of our academic mission,” Beilock described what she called a “grassroots-level” change as a result of Commitment to Care—the strategic plan launched two years ago to support student mental health.

She noted that a Healthy Minds survey found that the percentage of students at risk for moderate to severe depression had decreased since 2021 from 33% to 24%, and students at risk for moderate to severe anxiety decreased from 27% to 23%. Moreover, 73% of students agree that Dartmouth prioritizes student mental health, a nearly 30-percentage point increase since 2021. 

“We know we have significant work still ahead—but we are on the right path,” Beilock said.

She praised Dartmouth’s leadership in conducting “the first-ever clinical trial of a generative, AI-powered therapy chatbot” known as Therabot, which is informing the development of the new digital wellness tool Evergreen, an opt-in platform “conceived by students, for students” with the guidance of Dartmouth faculty, Beilock said. 

Additionally, Beilock noted progress on addressing Dartmouth’s housing shortage, which she called “one of the single biggest factors” in promoting mental health.

“This is a tractable problem that we will solve,” she said. “By 2028 we will have built over 700 new beds on West Wheelock for undergraduates, be in a position to return North Park to graduate students, and have finished our first of many faculty/staff new developments.”

On innovation and impact, Beilock highlighted some of the faculty accomplishments of the past year and outlined six research areas where “we see Dartmouth planting a flag and investing over the next five years.”

These include rural health and society; economy, democracy, and security; neuroscience and mental health; biomolecular design; cultivating creativity across the arts and humanities; and climate, energy, and cold regions. 

Discussing Dartmouth’s approach to artificial intelligence, Beilock said, “We have formed an AI Faculty Leadership Committee, whose members will consult with their peers, students, and staff to determine a coordinated, strategic approach to AI and harnessing its potential in ways that directly support our mission.”

On the transition from fossil fuel to sustainable energy, Beilock said that the $500 million Dartmouth Climate Collaborative—launched on Earth Day 2024—has transformed Dartmouth into “one of the most aspirational schools in our peer set” on this issue.

“We are modeling the solutions—installing solar above our buildings, drilling geo-exchange wells beneath us and moving from steam to hot water to heat and cool our buildings. And above all, we’re thinking about energy and climate in the interdisciplinary way it demands.”

Beilock detailed Dartmouth’s response to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon on the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, which proposed conditions on access to federal funding for Dartmouth and several other universities. 

“I told her that we have a responsibility to the American people. That we should be held accountable for the results. That we should be judged and evaluated not by rankings, or endowments, but by whether we’re creating the knowledge and the leaders who will change the world and elevate humanity,” Beilock said. 

“But I also made clear: If we are to be held accountable, if we are to be evaluated on those results, then we must be empowered to lead. We must be the ones who make the important decisions on our direction and our values. Not government or anyone else.”

Following Beilock’s speech, the faculty heard from representatives of the new Faculty Leadership Group on Artificial Intelligence, an ad hoc committee that aims to advance Dartmouth’s global leadership in AI.

In a question-and-answer session, some faculty members raised concerns about a push to integrate AI in the classroom, and asked what support would be available to faculty, including how the committee could help professors prevent student abuses of the technology. 

Provost Santiago Schnell encouraged faculty with such concerns to engage with the committee. And he promised that the Office of the Provost would fully support faculty, however they choose to engage in teaching, research, and creation. 

“My goal is to help every single faculty member to flourish,” he said.

The faculty also heard an update on the ongoing transition of the School of Arts and Sciences, a report on Dartmouth’s strategic plan for the Arts District, and about a new working group that is developing a formal definition of academic freedom. 

The General Faculty includes the faculties of the School of Arts and Sciences, Geisel School of Medicine, Thayer School of Engineering, and Tuck School of Business. The Arts and Sciences faculty serves both undergraduates and the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies.