Chancellor Andrew Martin will be inaugurated as the 15th chancellor of Washington University today, Oct. 4. For Martin, however, he’s just coming home.
 
First Steps
 
Martin first stepped onto Washington University’s campus as a graduate student in political science. He had traded his hometown of Lafayette, IN for Williamsburg, VA to study government and mathematics at the College of William and Mary, but after graduating with honors, his next stop would be St. Louis.
 
First, though, the University had to convince him to come.
 
Ethan A. H. Shepley Professor and Distinguished Professor Lee Epstein recalled meeting Martin for the first time when he was a prospective graduate student in 1994. She said he was a student they knew they wanted as part of their program.
 

“He had an offer, I believe at CalTech, and we were trying to convince him to come here,” Epstein said. “He came to us with a background in math and he had [an] interest in politics, and so that’s very much in our department’s wheel house…There’s a lot of people here who do data analysis and, of course, everybody is interested in political science and his fit with us was terrific. And so, we were delighted when he accepted our offer to come.”
 
Epstein would eventually become Martin’s advisor and oversee his dissertation. She described Martin as a magnet and said that everyone wanted to work with him.
 
“He has a wonderful personality…He’s someone you want to be around. [He’s] personable, creative,” Epstein said. “But he was also, of course, extremely smart and had developed excellent skills. He was a very quick learner and he wanted to learn the most cutting-edge, most creative ways to think about analyzing data.”
 
Born to Teach
 
Upon completing his Ph.D. in 1998, Martin accepted a position as an assistant professor of political science at Stony Brook University in New York. Just two years later, however, he would be back at the University as a political science and law professor. For those who knew him as a graduate student, his eagerness to be a teacher was unsurprising.
 
“[As a graduate student] Andrew was like I was. I didn’t want to be a grad student, I wanted to be a professor,” Epstein said. “And that’s what I saw in Andrew. He wanted to take it in, learn everything he possibly could, but get out there and do his research. He loves teaching; [he’s an] excellent teacher. I’ve taught with him [and] he’s really wonderful in the classroom. I don’t know if he even knew that he had administrative aspirations back then.”
 
Martin rose through the ranks of the University and, in 2007, was named chair of the political science department. To those who worked closely with him, that trajectory was also unsurprising.
 
Coming from a career as an attorney, Morgan Hazelton graduated with her Ph.D. in Political Science in 2013 from the University. Hazelton remembered how Martin was one of the first people she met on campus five years earlier.
 
“I remembered thinking that he was very dressed up—and that’s never changed—and that he was a little hard to read, but…very quickly it was clear to me that he was very funny but it was some sort of dry sense of humor,” Hazelton said. “When you first meet him, he’s a little formal seeming, and then very quickly that melts away.”
 
Martin would mentor Hazelton as her dissertation advisor. In 2008, when the economy was crumbling, she recalled hearing his steady voice amidst all the worries about the future of higher education.
 
“I remember he got all the grad students together because there were people who were panicking about it and he was like, ‘Look, we’ve made a commitment to you to fund your graduate education, and we’re going to live up to it one way or another,’” she said. “Just not showy, not flowery, but very just like, ‘Here’s how it’s going to be. It’s going to be okay.’”
 
Santiago Olivella was in the same cohort of Ph. D. students as Hazelton. As one of Martin’s head teaching assistants, Olivella remembers how despite Martin’s many responsibilities as chair of the department and his own research, Martin was unfailingly prepared for every lecture he gave.
 
“I even recall him devoting a few hours to help my fellow TA and me prepare a guest lecture of our choosing, giving us detailed guidance on how to teach and relate to the challenges experienced by students—lessons that I was then able to take with me and apply to this day, when teaching my own courses,” Olivella wrote in a statement to Student Life. “He set an amazing example of what it means to strive for excellence in everything you do while making it look fun and engaging. In sum, working for him was inspiring. I learned a great deal from that experience, and I am proud to have been part of his teaching team.”
 
During his tenure as chair, Martin was also named the founding director of the Center for Empirical Research in the Law, a research arm aimed to address the intersection of law and empirical research methodologies, in 2006. The center was established by current Chancellor and President of Syracuse University Kent Syverud.
 
The former dean of the University’s School of Law said Martin’s peers and students were “in awe” of what he accomplished. Martin was named as Syverud’s successor one year later.
 
“Andrew Martin was an excellent vice dean of the Washington University School of Law,” Syverud wrote in a statement to Student Life. “He was thoughtful, data-driven, respectful and effective. Washington University could not be in better hands.”
 
From St. Louis to Ann Arbor
 
When an opening became available at the University of Michigan to be the Dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, Martin left the University once more in 2014. Former Provost Martha Pollack made the recommendation to name Martin. It was there where Martin met current Provost of the University of Michigan Martin Philbert.
 
Philbert and Martin first met as colleagues. Even when Philbert became Michigan’s next provost, the two remained friends.
 
“I think his native intelligence and wit conspired to make him both a formidable scholar and just a hilarious guy,” Philbert said.
 
As dean, Martin faced a range of challenges. From addressing graduation trends, expanding financial aid support and increasing the diversity of voices in higher education, Philbert characterized Martin as someone who would always look to the future.
 
“He was constantly, constantly thinking about not just [where] the college was, but where it was going, and [he] had a very strong eye towards making the college better than it was and better able to withstand the known changes and some of the unknown changes that were likely to come,” Philbert said.
 
While at Michigan, Martin made strides to make the undergraduate experience more equitable and lasting. For him, this meant spearheading projects such as a new building for biological sciences and the creation of the “Hub,” a space for students to match up with mentors and gain experience in the areas in which they likely have an interest in pursuing a career. The space is slated to open next calendar year.
 
Most notably, Martin carried out a 33-point plan  which sought to create a more equitable and inclusive university.
 
“He cares about the mission of higher education. He cares about the students that are under his care and by extension under the care of the faculty and staff. And he cares deeply about the core purpose of having higher education as a driving and animating force in American society,” Philbert said. “I think he uses his skills and those that he has acquired by virtue of experience to wring the greatest value out of the resources that he has at his disposal.”
 
His most high-profile controversy was, according to Philbert, the allowance for divisive speakers to come onto public campuses and the controversy regarding free speech that resulted.
 
“He listened attentively,” Philbert said. “He responded with graciousness and with patience and then was an integrated part of the team  across campus as we sort of faced the horrible idea of somebody who would come onto our campus by dint of law and spread and spew that hatred.”
 
Home Again
 
Following the announcement of Mark Wrighton’s retirement, the Alumni and Development team sent out an email asking for names of who should be considered for the search. Hazelton wrote back with Martin’s name immediately.
 
“I was like, ‘Ooh, I’m going to give them a hot tip,’” Hazelton said. “But it turns out a bunch of people…were doing that.”
 
From all the experience Martin accrued in Ann Arbor and previously, Philbert said he didn’t think anyone was surprised by his selection as the University’s next chancellor.
 
“Those of us who enjoy his friendship wish that he would stay around longer,” Philbert said. “But it’s a pretty cool thing to have the chancellor of such a consequential American educational institution as a friend.”
 
For those closer to the University, Martin’s announcement as the next chancellor is a sort of homecoming. Decades of scholarship and collaboration later, Epstein said she cried at the news he would be the next chancellor.
 
“I was so happy for him, and I was so thrilled for the University that we are going to have such a wonderful, honestly extraordinary person lead us into the future,” she said.