Overview of Can Universities Win Back Our Trust?
This Freakonomics Radio episode features Dartmouth College president Sian Beilock in a wide-ranging conversation about the crisis of trust in higher education, the role of institutional neutrality, campus speech and protest, admissions, AI, student mental health, and what universities should actually be for. Beilock argues that colleges have drifted from their core mission—education and knowledge production—and that universities regain legitimacy by being clear about their purpose, enforcing rules consistently, and encouraging open inquiry rather than political signaling.
Key Themes and Takeaways
Higher education has a trust problem
- Beilock says public confidence in universities has fallen sharply.
- She believes universities have partly earned the skepticism because of:
- High costs and student debt
- Low graduation rates at many four-year institutions
- Perceptions that campuses are politically one-sided
- Her view: universities should stop acting like political actors and focus on their mission.
Institutional neutrality is central to her leadership style
- Beilock describes Dartmouth as following a version of institutional neutrality:
- The university itself does not take positions on political or policy issues unless they directly affect the institution’s core function.
- She says this approach helps preserve trust and gives faculty, staff, and students room to debate freely.
- She contrasts this with institutions that make public statements on every major issue, which can suppress dissenting views.
Free expression and civil dialogue are priorities at Dartmouth
- Dartmouth launched Dartmouth Dialogues after October 7 to encourage discussion across ideological divides.
- Beilock emphasizes:
- You can protest, but you cannot shout down speakers.
- You can protest, but you cannot take over campus spaces and declare them ideologically controlled.
- She argues that colleges should prepare students to engage with people they disagree with—an essential democratic skill.
Dartmouth’s admissions and academic policies are built around data
- Dartmouth was among the first Ivies to restore SAT/ACT requirements after COVID.
- Beilock argues the data show standardized tests can predict success better than some softer indicators like recommendation letters.
- She says test-optional policies can disadvantage students from lower-resource backgrounds because they may be less likely to submit scores even when those scores are strong.
AI is a major opportunity, not just a threat
- Dartmouth was the birthplace of the term artificial intelligence in 1956, and Beilock says the school has a responsibility to lead on AI.
- Dartmouth is partnering with Anthropic and AWS and is building its own chatbot, Evergreen, to support student mental health and academic guidance.
- Her stance:
- AI should augment human thinking, not replace it.
- It can help students navigate complex choices, but skepticism is healthy.
Mental health is foundational to learning
- As a psychologist, Beilock argues mental health is not separate from academic performance—it is a prerequisite for it.
- She wants students to have the resilience to:
- Take risks
- Fail and recover
- Engage in uncomfortable conversations
- She believes college students are not “spoiled,” but often under intense pressure and in need of better support.
Universities should train whole people, not just scholars
- Beilock frames leadership as developing “whole people” capable of thriving inside and outside the classroom.
- She sees Dartmouth’s role as helping students think critically, communicate across differences, and lead in a polarized society.
- She also acknowledges that universities often ask too much of faculty and leaders without properly training them for administration.
Dartmouth-Specific Initiatives Mentioned
Rural health and aging in place
- Dartmouth has a major rural medical footprint and is focused on building models for aging at home.
- The goal is to combine:
- Better health care access
- Workforce development for home health workers
- Technology-enabled care
- This could improve outcomes while reducing unnecessary hospital use.
Financial aid and access
- Dartmouth is need-blind and meets full financial need.
- Families earning up to $175,000 can attend tuition-free.
- Beilock says Dartmouth is trying to attract first-generation, low-income, and rural students.
Growth and impact
- If Dartmouth had an infinite budget, Beilock says she would:
- Expand the student body and faculty
- Invest more in areas of distinctive impact like rural health and polar research
- Scale Dartmouth’s dialogue programs to high schools nationwide
Leadership Style and Philosophy
She sees leadership as principled, not popularity-driven
- Beilock says her approach is to make decisions based on clear principles, even when unpopular.
- During campus unrest over the Israel-Gaza war, Dartmouth faced faculty censure and student no-confidence votes, but she says the institution held firm to its rules.
- She believes that consistency and clarity helped Dartmouth avoid some of the chaos seen elsewhere.
She rejects partisan capture from either side
- Beilock says she would not sign a political compact with any administration—Democratic or Republican—if it compromised Dartmouth’s independence.
- She has engaged with government officials from both parties when needed, but stresses that universities should not become “political footballs.”
She values diverse perspectives in leadership
- She says hiring Dartmouth’s general counsel, Matt Raymer, a Dartmouth alum and former RNC lawyer, fits her belief that strong institutions need people with different viewpoints.
- For her, diversity of thought at the leadership table improves decisions.
Notable Insights
- On choking under pressure: Trying to control too much can worsen performance by interfering with automatic processes.
- On truth: Beilock argues that truth is reached through converging evidence and open disagreement, not by silencing heterodox views.
- On campus culture: She believes colleges must create environments where students can hear uncomfortable ideas and still function as a community.
- On higher ed’s mission: Her repeated refrain is that universities should focus on education and knowledge production, not activism.
Bottom Line
Sian Beilock presents Dartmouth as a model for how universities might rebuild public trust: by staying mission-focused, protecting speech, resisting partisan pressure, investing in student wellness, and using data to inform policy. Her argument is that universities regain legitimacy not by trying to please everyone, but by being clear, consistent, and intellectually open.