An Interview with Provost Santiago Schnell

On February 26, The Review sat down with Dartmouth Provost San­tiago Schnell. Among other things, we discussed his academic vision for the College, the influence of Catho­lic theology on his teaching style, his response to criticisms of alleged ad­ministrative bloat, and the future of higher education more broadly.

When Provost Santiago Schnell discusses the future of Dartmouth, he does not reach for the tired lex­icon of the modern administrator. There was no talk of “synergy” or “strategic pivots.” Instead, he reached for a pen and drew a circle. This is his “circle of knowledge,” a geometric metaphor for the human condition. As the area of the circle, our collec­tive understanding, expands, so too does its circumference: the frontier where knowledge meets ignorance. It is here, at the diameter of the cir­cle where the boundary between knowledge and ignorance is “dif­fuse,” that Schnell believes the true university must operate.

We opened the discussion with a conversation about his reasoning for coming to Dartmouth. The Review covered Santiago Schnell’s appoint­ment as Provost several months ago, in which we touched on the respon­sibility he felt to come to Dartmouth from Notre Dame, a renowned Catholic university. In our recent sit-down with the Provost, it became clear that this mathematical rigor is inextricably linked to a “deep­ly Catholic” intellectual tradition. Schnell, who arrived in Hanover in 2025, having served as Dean at No­tre Dame prior, emphasized that the role Catholicism plays in his vision for the College is less a theological one and more so a spiritual lens. He argues that the Catholic Church, in many ways, is the basis upon which the modern university is founded. He views the foundations of higher education not as a secular invention of the Enlightenment, but as a tradi­tion designed to “put water into the brain” to eventually “light a fire” in the formation of the whole human being.

Schnell went on to describe Dart­mouth’s mission as a university as being to form human beings, as op­posed to merely producing vassals to the job market. Schnell described the primary difference between No­tre Dame and Dartmouth as being that Notre Dame has fully retained theology at the center of it, but noted that both institutions, as universities, have the same mission, one that is Catholic in origin. For Schnell, the “teaching-scholar” model known at Dartmouth is a vocation to educate from the “heart and the mind.” 

We then pivoted the con­versation away from Schnell’s broad spiritual vision for the College and toward particu­lar policy positions. Regard­ing growing concerns about artificial intelligence, Schnell acknowledged the role that AI has in learning at the “center of knowledge,” that is, fields of study in which the facts are well established and beyond debate. Schnell emphasized through a vivid drawing that at the “frontiers” of knowl­edge, where we continue to make discoveries and deliber­ate, AI is of no help and can, in actuality, be detrimental. Schnell emphasized that the “frontier” of knowledge is where, ultimately, university work should be preparing stu­dents to operate.

Schnell pushed back on the idea that administrative bloat is mainly self-inflicted, instead arguing that much of it is driven by federal regula­tion. Still, he stressed that his instinct is to keep administra­tion lean and direct resources toward teaching, research, and students. Regarding the New School of Arts and Scienc­es and potential criticisms of more bureaucracy, he defend­ed the restructuring as essen­tial to strengthening academic leadership. He argued that the restructuring of the College gives more autonomy to fac­ulty and frees the president of the university to act more ful­ly as the public figurehead of the institution. 

We concluded our conversa­tion with Provost Schnell with him emphasizing the impor­tance of Dartmouth’s policy of institutional restraint and its fostering of free and open discourse. The Review, being in the minority of opinions on campus, is most certainly thankful for Provost Schnell’s steadfast dedication to seeing through the true, integral mis­sion of the university. We look forward to what his tenure as Provost will entail. In a time in which tradition has been eroded, we, for one, fully sup­port Provost Schnell and the agenda that he and President Beilock are pursuing in seeing through our College’s integral mission.

When Provost Santiago Schnell discusses the future of Dartmouth, he does not reach for the tired lexicon of the modern administrator. There was no talk of “synergy” or “strategic pivots.” Instead, he reached for a pen and to draw a circle. This is his “circle of knowledge,” a geometric meta­phor for the human condition. As the area of the circle—our collective understanding—ex­pands, so too does its circum­ference: the frontier where knowledge meets ignorance. It is here, at the diameter of the circle where the boundary between knowledge and igno­rance is “diffuse,” that Schnell believes the true university must operate. 

In our sit-down with the Provost, it became clear that this mathematical rigor is in­extricably linked to a “deep­ly Catholic” intellectual tra­dition. Schnell, who arrived in Hanover in 2025 (having served as Dean at Notre Dame prior), views the foundations of higher education not as a secular invention of the En­lightenment, but as a tradition designed to “put water into the brain” to eventually “light a fire” in the formation of the whole human being. 

For Schnell, the “teach­ing-scholar” model known at Dartmouth is a vocation to educate from the “heart and the mind.” He notes that while the “center” of his circle is well-trodden and firm, it is also the domain where Artifi­cial Intelligence is most effec­tive. 

“AI works pretty well right here in the middle,” he told us, but at the frontier where the teaching-scholar lives, AI is not yet effective. To com­bat the potential for auto­mated mediocrity, Schnell is calling for “personalized ed­ucation”—a system where as­signments are “interrogated” in small classrooms to ensure students have the judgment to move learning from the mind to the “heart.” 

This commitment to the frontier explains Schnell’s sense of “moral obligation” to serve in the Ivy League. He views elite universities as the “punching ball” of the gener­al public and the government, often bruised by a “small frac­tion” of faculty who present a “narrow” view that turns toward “activism instead of scholarship.” Against this in­tellectual conformity, Schnell offers a defense against “un­earned certainty.” He envi­sions a Dartmouth that pro­tects “heterodox” thinking, serving as an antidote to the confusion of those who have replaced inquiry with ideolog­ical broadcasting. 

As he navigates his tenure, Schnell’s philosophy on “ad­ministrative bloat” remains refreshingly lean. He sees ev­ery non-teaching hire through a moral lens: “For every per­son that I hire that is not do­ing teaching, I don’t have the opportunity to offer financial aid to a student.” This is ex­ceedingly refreshing for us at The Dartmouth Review. While he acknowledges the obscene paperwork required by feder­al agencies like the National Science Foundation, he is sure to place the blame square­ly on the government rather than colleges. He argued that colleges have to hire the sup­port staff or already burdened professors would not be able to execute their position be­tween the classroom and their research. 

Ultimately, Schnell’s vision is a paradoxical one: a world-class scientist using the logic of the frontier to defend the “historical richness” of the liberal arts. By championing President Sian Beilock’s idea of institutional neutrality, he seeks to protect the “radical” or controversial ideas that might one day become the breakthrough truths of tomor­row. If he succeeds, he will do more than just manage the College; he will restore it to its rightful place at the edge of the circle, where the pursuit of truth takes precedence over the performance of petty pol­itics.