A screenshot of the livestreamed discussion where Chancellor Andrew Martin was a featured speaker (Student Life). 

Chancellor Andrew Martin was a featured speaker at the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) “Never is Now” two-day summit in New York City, Mar. 3 and 4. 

The ADL is an international organization whose primary mission is to combat antisemitism and other forms of bigotry. In October 2023, the organization sent a letter to the presidents of nearly 200 U.S. colleges and universities, urging them to investigate their campus chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine. The ADL describes “Never is Now” as “the world’s largest summit on antisemitism and hate” on their website.

When asked by Student Life why Martin chose to speak at the ADL summit, Julie Flory — Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communications — said that Martin often receives invitations to speak on various topics from a range of local, national, and global organizations.

“His accepting an invitation doesn’t mean he agrees with an organization’s positions or agenda, only that he has agreed to speak,” Flory wrote in an email comment to Student Life. “Nondiscrimination is an essential component of empowering all members of our community.“ 

Martin spoke on the first day of the summit during the segment titled “New Ways to Fight Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism on College Campuses,” alongside University of Michigan President Santa Ono. 

He discussed WashU’s protest and encampment policies, movements for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS), and the op-ed he recently co-authored about on-campus polarization.

Dan Senor, a columnist, political commentator, and host of an Israel-focused podcast, moderated the discussion between Martin and Ono. Senor began the discussion by asking about a line in Martin’s op-ed which advocated for regulating civil discourse so as to not obstruct higher education’s purposes of teaching and research. 

“We want opinions to be lifted up, but at the same time, we need to be able to focus on the mission. Teaching has to continue and that’s why we have those rules,” Martin said. “It is difficult to enforce rules, particularly when you have people screaming at you, questioning every decision that you make.” 

Martin cited WashU’s encampment policy as an example of such a rule. He said that a 2019 encampment advocating for a $15 minimum wage led WashU to develop a formalized anti-encampment policy.  

“It was really difficult for us to provide safety and security to students who were sleeping in the middle of our campus 24 hours a day, so we established a no encampment policy in 2019,” Martin said, noting that the administration could have publicized the policy better.  

He then referenced the Israel-Palestine protests on campus last spring and the police response to the encampment on April 20 is a successful enforcement of the anti-encampment policy.   

“In April, when things got a little spicier on our campus, we had a protest. [The administration] made sure that it happened safely, and as soon as they brought out the tents, [we] said ‘You have to go,’ and on that day, they chose to go,” Martin said. 

Student Life reported that shortly after protestors set up tents on April 20 near Brookings Hall, WashU Police Sergeant Zohaib Khan declared it to be an unlawful assembly. Following Kahn’s announcement, several police transport units arrived and preparations were made for arrests; however, protestors vacated the premises before any arrests were made.    

Martin then told the ADL audience that a week later, on April 27, around 400 individuals protested on campus and attempted to set up another encampment during the reading period before final exams. 

Student Life reported that around 250 individuals participated in this protest and that over 100 of them were arrested after refusing to leave the campus and remove their tents after numerous warnings. Among those arrested were 23 WashU students and four faculty members.

“75% [of the individuals protesting] were unaffiliated with Washington University, and some of them weren’t even from St. Louis,” Martin said. “They had flown in from around the country to carry out their agenda on our campus at the time that our students were studying.”

Martin alleged that social media contributed to the protest and attempted encampment.  

“We did have students and some faculty members and staff involved, but this [was] not just spontaneously happening on our campuses,” Martin said. “It’s certainly the case that this social media environment [was] being leveraged by other actors to sort of spin things up on campuses as well.” 

He explained that his administration used the police force on April 27 to ensure that “stakes did not go in the ground,” in alignment with WashU’s non-encampment policy.   

“We did that because the presence of that encampment would interfere with our mission of education,” Martin said. “It was making it more difficult to provide safety and security for all of our students.” 

Ono had a very different experience as a university leader dealing with turmoil on his campus last year. In a leaked audio recording from last year, he said that “powerful groups” in the federal government care about how universities combat antisemitism but not Islamophobia. 

“In terms of powerful groups I was referring to a number of committees in Congress,” Ono said to the ADL audience. “My question was ‘Why isn’t there a focus on Islamophobia and why so much focus on antisemitism?’… But for me it was no desire at all to dilute the focus of fighting antisemitism, that has been a predominant focus of ours because that is the real issue on campus.” 

Martin added that WashU will continue to collaborate with Israeli scholars and institutions amid calls for BDS. 

“Our collaborations with Israeli scholars and Israeli institutions bring great value to our University,” Martin said. “We want our students and faculty to have the academic freedom to participate in those programs.” 

When asked how WashU has been deepening ties with Israel and Israeli institutions amid growing momentum for institutional boycott and divestment, Martin brought up an interview with Student Life last spring. In the interview he was asked if the University would ever divest or unaffiliate from Boeing, a defense contractor for the US that has sent weaponry to Israel that have been used in Gaza. 

“I just looked at the reporter and said ‘No.’ I didn’t explain why. I [had] explained why for seven years,” Martin said. “We’ve been on the record institutionally for a very long time that BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] is antithetical to academic freedom as an institution.” 

In an interview with Student Life this fall, WashU’s Chief Investment Officer Scott Wilson said that, to his knowledge, WashU is not financially invested in Boeing. However, WashU and Boeing do have connections through programs like Boeing’s Accelerated Leadership Program, recruitment events on campus, and Olin Business School’s Boeing Center for Supply Chain Innovation. 

Martin also said that WashU practices institutional neutrality in regards to its investment practices, as the school’s primary investment objective is to maximize returns in support of its mission.

When asked by Student Life to clarify the scope of institutional neutrality at WashU, Flory explained that the university maintains neutrality on political and social issues that are not directly connected to its core mission.

“It doesn’t mean we never take a position on anything,” Flory wrote.