Webster University will eliminate its chess program, according to local reporting, citing student visa issues and the inability to secure new endowment funding to sustain the team. The university said it could not raise a single dollar in endowments to support the program and that it had invested more than $1 million per year from operating budgets while enrollment at the campus declined by half. Webster also linked the decision to difficulty recruiting international players amid shifting visa approvals under the Trump administration’s immigration policies. The chess team’s dissolution comes less than a year after it won a seventh national championship. The move underscores the operational vulnerabilities of tuition-dependent athletics and extracurricular programs that rely heavily on international student recruitment—and may signal similar pressures for other visa-intensive student programs if funding and compliance constraints tighten further.