This story was originally produced by the Valley News. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
Dartmouth College has received a $25 million donation in support of its program to teach productive dialogue across diverse points of view.
The gift, announced Wednesday morning, comes from Jim Frank, a member of the class of 1965 and a current Dartmouth trustee, his wife Karen, and their son Daniel, class of 1992.
In a news release, Dartmouth called the gift, “one of the largest ever made at an American university to support programming and education around civil discourse and the free exchange of ideas.”
“Dartmouth’s comprehensive approach is setting a national example for the type of constructive exchange of ideas that has been foundational for the success of our republic,” Jim Frank said in a written statement.
The gift includes a $15 million challenge and $10 million to endow the James Frank Family Executive Director of Dartmouth Dialogues. Matching the $15 million challenge with smaller gifts would bring Dartmouth close to its goal of raising $50 million to fund the program in perpetuity. So far, it has raised $29 million.
Dartmouth Dialogues is a signature program of President Sian Leah Beilock. Launched in January 2024, the program has broad reach, ranging from inviting speakers from across the political spectrum to fostering discussion groups among students, holding dialogue training sessions and surveying students about their comfort with difficult conversations.
The most recent survey, taken last fall, found that “85% of Dartmouth students express confidence in their ability to engage respectfully with differing viewpoints.”
“Dartmouth Dialogues is creating spaces that meet students where they are and give them the tools to push past their comfortable assumptions to meet different perspectives with openness and curiosity,” Beilock said in Wednesday’s announcement. “This gift is an incredible vote of confidence in this endeavor, and I am profoundly grateful to the Franks for their inspiring generosity.”
Jim Frank majored in philosophy at Dartmouth, earned an MBA at Stanford University and ran his family’s business, Wheels Inc., one of the largest automotive fleet leasing companies in North America. He and Daniel are currently part of Frank Family Investments, which makes “long term investments in companies that have integrity, sustainable value, and a focus on the customer,” according to the firm’s website.
