Dear Pomona College Community,
Congratulations on the successful conclusion of the teaching term yesterday. I wish our students well as they head into final exams.
As we approach the celebratory part of the academic year, I want to update you on the latest federal developments, consistent with my updates throughout this semester. Next week, I will be sharing a fuller update of College progress this spring and, then, in the weeks ahead, I will share an update on progress and latest developments in the College’s work to achieve our strategic vision.
Here are the latest issues emerging from Capitol Hill related to higher education and how the College is responding:
United Front with Colleges and University Partners
We continue to convey the College’s concerns about ongoing federal policy decisions to representatives and staff on Capitol Hill.
Our alarm around threats to higher education and academic freedom led President Starr and I to join with presidents from hundreds of other colleges and universities across the country in signing a recent open letter to our government, “A Call for Constructive Engagement.”
In April, the College signed on to an amicus brief led by the Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration. This brief supported a motion, which the federal court ultimately approved, requesting a preliminary court order enjoining the White House from acting on its new policy of revoking the visas of and arresting, detaining and deporting noncitizen students and faculty exercising their rights to free speech and free association. We will continue to advocate for these Constitutional rights. The attacks on such rights, like the administration’s deeply troubling attacks on academic freedom, run contrary to values at the foundation of America and, in fact, to values central to our College.
At the state level, we continue to work with the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU) to engage with California lawmakers on issues critical to higher education. Last month, I joined other AICCU college presidents in meetings with state legislators, including to discuss state budget priorities for college students.
Federal Endowment Tax
As you know, one of the continuing issues being debated in Congress is increasing the federal tax on endowments of nonprofit colleges and universities whose endowment per student exceeds $500,000, which includes Pomona. As shared previously, since this tax was introduced in 2017, the cost to Pomona has been more than $16 million, which is roughly equivalent to 184 full student scholarships. As part of the emerging budget package, the Republican majority in both houses of Congress is discussing increasing the current 1.4% tax rate to between 10% and 21%, a dramatic increase that would impact both the College’s operations and the endowment. We are working closely with peer institutions through the Small Colleges Coalition to express to Congressional offices the negative impact such increases would have on the College’s investment of endowment resources in financial aid and other essential aspects of our educational mission. In addition, we are working to convey this concern through our own Washington, D.C. contacts and our higher education consortia, including the American Council on Education and the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.
We also recognize that other institutions, including Harvard, Princeton, Johns Hopkins, Brown, and others, are facing different challenges from the current administration. These challenges include the administration’s series of announcements that it is withholding hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars in federal funding that had been allocated to those universities for research and other critical programs. While Pomona’s faculty are recipients of some federal grants, the College’s budget does not depend on federal investments like those other institutions.
Pomona community members have shared with us their own concerns about the potential impact of Executive Orders and other federal decisions on the College’s finances. While the decisions that Congress might ultimately make remain quite unclear, and the most extreme outcomes being discussed would create severe budget challenges for Pomona, I want to stress that we are prepared to adapt our budget to meet a wide range of outcomes from the above decisions. We do not receive much federal funding, donors to the College across generations and strong investment performance have enhanced our endowment, and Pomona has practiced careful budget management across the years. For the 2026 academic year, we have prepared well, including by identifying savings initiatives, and expect the College’s budget to be stable as we face this period of uncertainty around federal funding and tax-policy discussions.
National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Budget Cuts
We are tremendously proud of our faculty leaders in research, some of whom have earned competitively awarded grants from these two important agencies of U.S. competitiveness. We are paying close attention to Congressional discussions that could drastically reduce these agencies’ budgets and staff. As you probably know, the administration has already made large funding and staffing cuts to these and other federal agencies that are vital to America’s world-leading research system.
Late last week, the NSF announced that it has stopped issuing new grants, and it has so far cancelled more than 1,000 current grants. Hundreds of research and service grants and contracts at the NIH, Centers for Disease Control and the Environmental Protection Agency also have been canceled. None of these decisions has yet resulted in cuts to grants to Pomona.
The emerging budget and appropriations discussions propose even more significant cuts to these and other science and research agencies, and we are working through every possible channel to convey our views about the harm these reductions would cause for America’s world leadership, its recruitment and development of great talent from across the globe, and the future of American science, medicine and innovation.
For questions and guidance on federal funding, please reach out to Dean Gerstein, director of sponsored research.
International Student Updates
On April 25, Dean of Students Avis Hinkson and Dean of the College Melanie Wu provided a timely update on a number of matters related to international students, including summer research funding, employment and housing. Thank you to all who have stepped up by posting summer opportunities for our students on Handshake.
If students are still looking for summer opportunities, please reach out to Dean Hinkson or Dean Wu.
I am relieved to note that shortly after that message was sent on April 25, colleges and universities across the country, including the Claremont Colleges, began seeing the restoration of records of international students who are part of the federal government’s Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). The U.S. Department of Homeland Security uses the SEVIS system to manage student and exchange-visitor records. Prior to April 25, international students had begun receiving notices that their SEVIS records had been terminated or their visas revoked without warning or clear explanation. We are pleased that these issues have been corrected and that students’ SEVIS status has been restored, as SEVIS status is a critical part of the system that allows international students to study in the U.S. For students who have questions about their documentation or guidelines, please reach out to Kathy Quispe, who has performed truly heroic service in support of our international students.
We will continue to keep you informed as these and other policy developments unfold. I look forward to sharing with you next week a summary of some of the most positive work done across the College this semester. As we prepare to celebrate our Class of 2025 at Commencement, I wish all our students, faculty and staff a productive and successful conclusion to the academic year.
Best wishes,
Bob
Robert Gaines
Acting President
Edwin F. and Martha Hahn Professor of Geology