June 3, 2025 – Summer Update from President Hicks
Dear Davidson Wildcats,
Just over two weeks ago, we held a beautiful Commencement on the front lawn of campus. I had the honor of reminding the 500 graduates that the world needs them and that a Davidson education is a public good. In a few days, more than 1,650 Davidsonians will gather for Reunion Weekend—a campus filled with living proof of the leadership and service that the Davidson experience provides to our nation and world. I look forward to seeing many of you on campus, including members of my own Class of 1990.
Even as we celebrate a successful academic year and a record-breaking admission season, with the most applications to Davidson in our history, we face unprecedented challenges to higher education. I want to update you on the critical issues affecting Davidson.
As alums, students, staff, faculty, parents and friends of our college, we embody and embrace disparate backgrounds and perspectives. This is a great strength of Davidson. We also share a great deal in terms of the value and values of a Davidson education.
Our Statement of Purpose describes us “[a]s a college that welcomes students, faculty, and staff from a variety of nationalities, ethnic groups, and traditions.” Eleven percent, or just more than 200, of our students are international students. They hail from five dozen countries. This fall, 54 new international students will arrive on campus. About 30 of them are awaiting visas. A number of returning students face visa renewals. Thus, the current federal “pause” on scheduling visa appointments may determine whether these students can realize their dream of getting a Davidson education.
We educate all our students—American, British, Chinese, Colombian, Indian, Kenyan, Spanish, Vietnamese and other nationalities—to lead and serve around the world. The presence of students from all parts helps prepare every Davidson graduate to be effective as economic contributors and as citizens. International graduates either return to their countries shaped by the values of Davidson’s Honor Code, or they stay in the U.S. as part of a “brain gain” for this country.
Davidson colleagues in Admission and Financial Aid, Student Life, and International Student Engagement are in frequent contact with affected students to support their visa paperwork and to ease their anxiety. We have committed to these students, and they are vital members of the Davidson community.
One of our highest institutional priorities remains accessibility, affordability and opportunity. Davidson’s rising sophomores—the Class of 2028—include the largest percentage of American Pell-Grant-eligible students in our history. Our incoming Class of 2029 is set to match that Pell percentage of about 22.5 percent of new students. In recent graduating classes, these Pell-eligible students have graduated at a rate of 94 percent, a remarkable number by any peer comparison. This is a direct outcome of both Davidson’s financial aid commitment and our individualized care and support of each student. We dedicated more than $75 million last year to financial aid.
That funding is possible because we spend the majority of the earnings from our endowment on financial aid and we have strong annual support from alumni and friends. At present, the federal “endowment excise tax” proposal in the U.S. House version of the Budget Bill would increase Davidson’s endowment tax five-fold—from an annual rate of 1.4 percent on earnings to 7.0 percent. Last year, this would have been an additional $5 million; in future years, it could be much larger.
Our endowment is the result of generous private, individual donors—people like you reading this letter—and foundations who believe in our educational mission. Over time, with good stewardship of those gifts, we have grown the endowment. That has enabled us to achieve low student-to-faculty ratios, high graduation rates and low debt among graduates.
And the federal taxpayer cost-per-student at Davidson is less than half of that of a public university student.
I’d like to note that the U.S. House version of the Budget Bill includes an exemption for religiously affiliated schools. If that exemption remains in the bill as drafted, Davidson would likely qualify for it.
Even as most national liberal arts colleges have distanced themselves from their religious ties, we have maintained our affiliation to the Presbyterian Church (USA). To be sure, we as the Davidson College community have long joined in conversations and debates over what that Presbyterian identity means for the college. That is a necessary part of being 188 years old! As philosopher Charles Taylor has stated, tradition means an ongoing argument among members about the very meaning of tradition and how to live it out in changing times.
Davidson team members and I are asking our senators and congressmen and women not to quintuple our tax rate so that we can continue to fulfill our mission and live out our core commitment to affordability, access, and opportunity. Many of our alumni and friends have asked what more they can do to support Davidson at this moment. We are deeply grateful for your continuing financial support and the high levels of engagement that have positioned the college strongly. In addition, if you have the opportunity to communicate with those who are making decisions about national policy, consider sharing with them the value of an education that focuses on the whole person, preparing students for lives of leadership and service. We all can help communicate the cost to individuals, communities, and the nation of losing one of America’s greatest civic and economic strengths, its free and independent institutions of higher education.
Thank you for joining me in recent weeks for in-person and online discussions about Davidson, the exciting things happening on campus, the challenges we face, and how we seek to improve our college. Thank you for speaking up for Davidson College’s purpose and enduring values.
Have a wonderful summer.
Doug Hicks '90
President