On May 12, Dartmouth Student Government hosted a panel with College President Sian Leah Beilock and other senior administrators to share updates and answer questions regarding federal government actions affecting Dartmouth. During the panel, Beilock defended several of her recent decisions — which have garnered criticism from faculty, students and alumni — and argued the state of free speech is better at Dartmouth than other campuses.
Approximately 50 people attended the event, which was moderated by student body president Chukwuka Odigbo ’25. Most of the hour was reserved for audience questions, where students asked about potential funding cuts, Dartmouth’s relationship with the federal government and the state of free expression on campus. Other members of the panel included senior vice president for communications and government relations Justin Anderson, Office of Visa and Immigration Services director Susan Ellison, senior vice president Shontay Delalue, Provost David Kotz, senior vice president and general counsel Matthew Raymer, senior vice president for community and campus life Jennifer Rosales and executive vice president for strategy and special counsel to the president Jomysha Delgado Stephen.
Beilock opened the panel by explaining what she saw as the impacts on Dartmouth of federal actions such as a potential tax on university endowments or the loss of federal funding for research and financial aid.
Dartmouth has joined three lawsuits to recover funding from the Department of Education, National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation, Beilock said. According to Raymer, judges have issued injunctions temporarily in all three lawsuits’ injunctions. He also said Dartmouth plans to file amicus briefs in support of lawsuits brought by Harvard and other institutions who have been under more scrutiny.
Raymer added that visa revocations of Dartmouth community members “seem to have died down,” and that administration is “not aware of anyone at Dartmouth” whose immigration status is currently threatened. The Dartmouth previously reported that two community members whose student visa statuses were revoked have had their statuses reinstated.
Anderson added that he and Beilock have traveled to Washington, D.C., four times in 2025 — a fact which he said “speaks to the urgency of the moment.” Beilock said she has “spent a lot of time talking to anyone who will listen on the right and the left about the power of higher education.”
“We want the best students from across the world,” Beilock said. “International students can’t be scared to stay here … Having diversity in our people and ideas leads to our best outcomes.”
Beilock maintained that her decision not to sign the American Association of College and Universities letter — which was signed by over 640 university presidents — condemning the Trump administration’s actions in higher education had “nothing to do with me being fearful to sign the letter.”
“In fact, I put more of a target on our back by reaching out to the community directly,” she said.
When attendee and student body president-elect Sabik Jawad ’26 asked about how the College’s budget may be impacted in the future by federal funding cuts, Beilock responded that, in the case of funding cuts, the budget would be reevaluated “according to [Dartmouth] values.”
“The ability to have the best and brightest students come from across the world and anyone who gets in being able to be here is at the top of [our funding priorities],” she said.
In response to a question from Odigbo about the temporary removal of the College’s diversity, equity and inclusion webpage, Delalue said the website was taken down to ensure its language was “super clear and inclusive to all.” She added that the website that was taken down was “connected to Dartmouth’s main website but was not the institutional DEI website.”
The Dartmouth previously reported that the website was temporarily removed to reflect that Dartmouth does not practice “illegal DEI,” according to a College spokesperson.
Several students also asked about the College’s response to a pro-Palestinian protest on May 1, 2024, which resulted in the arrest of 89 protesters after the administration called in law enforcement.
Eli Moyse ’27 compared the administration’s treatment of anti-Vietnam War demonstrations — when administrators brought them food and bailed out protesters — to recent demonstrations, such as the disciplinary action taken against protestors earlier this month.
“What has changed culturally that [administrators] are now so hostile to demonstrators?” he asked.
Beilock responded that the administration has to consider the “safety and security of our campus and [make] sure everyone feels welcome in our spaces.”
“One person’s free expression shouldn’t take over another person’s free expression, which means not shouting down speakers or taking over parts of campus and declaring it for one ideology,” Beilock said.
Rosales added that the administration is working to make campus protests easier to organize and safer by working with the town to change permitting restrictions and expanding the College’s open expression facilitator program, which makes administrators available at demonstrations.
The Dartmouth’s editor-in-chief Charlotte Hampton ’26 asked why administrators believe Dartmouth has been able to avoid a “renegotiation” of their relationship with the federal government. For example, several peer institutions have had billions of dollars of federal funding frozen.
Beilock responded that Dartmouth’s culture of “respectful dialogue across difference,” especially after the Oct. 7 attacks, could explain why the College has not been a bigger target. However, Dartmouth “has not been spared” from some federal actions because it has lost federal grants, Beilock said.
“We can celebrate vigils for Holocaust Remembrance Day, and we can have a vigil around Palestinian events,” Beilock said. “For whatever differences you have, I see students talking to each other. That’s something that’s part of the Dartmouth ethos and different than at other campuses.”
Dylan Griffith ’25 said that Beilock “created a lot of distrust” among students when she justified the arrests of the May 1, 2024 protesters on the Green by “twisting their words” to “construe [protesters] as violent,” and asked if administrators thought that they “made a mistake” in their response to the protest.
Griffith also pointed out that Dartmouth Dialogues recently co-sponsored a free speech panel moderated by Jerry Hughes ’88 — who was involved with destruction of shanty towns erected on the Green during the anti-Apartheid protests in 1986
“He actually committed violence on the Green, and that’s who you’re platforming,” Griffith said.
Beilock responded that “there was a lot of violence associated with protests last fall” at universities around the country.
Jawad said in an interview after the panel that the event was an opportunity for students to hear from administrators directly even though he felt administrators “circumvent[ed]” questions about freedom of expression.
“That’s where I would hope for more clarity,” he said.
Attendee Wica-Ta-Wi Hoksina Brown ’28 said the panel was “disappointing” because administrators “never answered” the question about whether they were wrong in their response to May 1, 2024 demonstrations on the Green.
“I was hoping [admitting fault] would break down the wall that administrators put up,” he said. “If they don’t think they’re doing anything wrong, they don’t have to work towards bettering [free speech on campus].”
Brown added that the “inconvenient” time the panel was scheduled for may have resulted in some students’ questions not being asked.
“I have so many friends who are in class right now,” he said.
The panel — which was held from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Monday — conflicted with classes in the 11 and 12 blocks. According to Odigbo, this was the only time all week that both worked for all of the administrators DSG wanted to include and during which Collis Common Ground was available.
Charlotte Hampton ’26 is the editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth, while Eli Moyse ’27 is an opinion editor for The Dartmouth. Neither were involved in the writing or editing of this story.
