Dear Pomona College Community,
Today, the House passed the domestic policy legislation modified by the Senate as an amendment to the House bill H.R.1. While many of its provisions are controversial, we are grateful that this bill effectively exempts small colleges with enrollments of fewer than 3,000 tuition-paying full-time students from paying an endowment excise tax that has been in place since 2017 (to date, Pomona has paid more than $16 million in endowment taxes). It is expected that the President will sign this bill into law tomorrow. We will share an assessment of all the Education provisions in the final bill next week.
This outcome is the result of months of concerted effort to persuade lawmakers of both the value and impact of small colleges, while educating the public about how endowments work to provide critical support for financial aid and other essential aspects of educational mission. This was a collaborative effort among our community, our consultants, and our peer college coalition. I want to express special gratitude to our ad-hoc Government Relations Working Group (KJ Fagan, Kara Godwin, Katharine Laidlaw, Pete Mackey, Geoff Pearson, Jeff Roth, Maria Watson) for their strategic work and contribution to our advocacy and to the Finance Team for their efforts modeling complicated contingency plans based on the many possible outcomes of this bill.
This is welcome news to begin the holiday weekend. I hope you enjoy a fabulous 4th of July and thank you for all that you do to advance our extraordinary mission.
With gratitude,
Gabi
G. Gabrielle Starr
President, Pomona College
Philip and Gertrude McConnell Professor
Departments of English and Neuroscience