Chancellor Martin sat down for his semesterly interview with Student Life last Thursday. (Eran Fann | Photo Editor)

WashU Chancellor Andrew Martin sat down for an interview with Student Life last Thursday, April 3. Martin spoke about University plans regarding federal defunding, on-campus construction, and student advocacy. The Q&A has been edited for length and clarity. 

Student Life: A lot of students have been talking about Mudd Field. Is there a plan to provide students with that same communal green space while the field is being renovated?

Andrew Martin: We can’t create space out of thin air, so there’s kind of a constraint that we are dealing with. If you all could come up with a brilliant suggestion of where we could find another big chunk of green space, we can talk. But as I sit here today, and perhaps I’m too narrow-minded and can’t figure it out, but I can’t really think about what a good alternative would be. 

SL: In your most recent op-ed with the Vanderbilt chancellor, you write that universities do not better society through ideological agendas, but through research and civil discourse. How can you do any of that without being political? How can you have rules and policies at a university without being political?

AM: The role of the University isn’t to take positions on important issues of the day. Our role is to empower our faculty and our students to be able to be active citizens and participants in democracy. There are issues where it’s completely acceptable and reasonable for the University to step up and take positions, and this has to do with things that affect the University, like research funding and student access. But universities shouldn’t have foreign policies. We’re not going to weigh in on debates about what the right way is to deal with some sort of environmental catastrophe. That’s not the role of the University, that’s the role of our faculty and students and other people who participate in the democratic process. The purpose of an institution’s policies and rules is to drive the university’s mission. We do three things: education, research, and patient care.

SL: How do you choose what issues to weigh in on or not? Wouldn’t that very act of choosing what to weigh in on be political? For example, weighing in on NIH funding but not on DEI policies or gender-affirming care.

AM: The activities of the University around important issues of the day, which includes immigration, DEI, research funding, student access — some of that work is done in a very public way, through statements and other things, and some of that work is done one-on-one with individual legislators. We make those decisions based on the strategic guidance of our government relations team and our outside partners. We’re making those decisions in order to best protect and serve the mission of the University in whatever way we think is going to be most effective.

SL: When you say strategic guidance, what are you referring to?

AM: We are going to choose the modality of engagement based on what we believe is going to be most effective in terms of pursuing the goals of the University. We have a government relations team whose job it is to counsel us on those types of decisions.

SL: Given the current state of higher education and proposed funding cuts, which WashU programs do you think will be affected by these cuts? 

AM: To be honest, every program is likely to be affected by these funding cuts. Our two biggest areas for potentially huge decreases in revenue are 1) federal research funding and 2) endowment excise tax. We’re approaching this from a whole University standpoint. Some of the numbers that we’re looking at are very, very significant, and we’re going to have to do a lot of significant planning. 

SL: Who is deciding which programs to cut back on?

AM: We have a group that was officially set up in August of last year, which is led by Nichol Luoma, who’s our Chief Administrative Officer; David Gray, who is our Chief Financial Officer; Rick Stanton, who is basically the CAO and the CFO of the medical school. Dr Anna Gonzalez, the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs; Pam Henson, the Executive Vice Chancellor for University Advancement are also members of this group. As we sit here today, we actually haven’t made any cuts yet. Ultimately, that group makes recommendations to the full cabinet and then to me as the decision-maker.

SL: The Creative Writing MFA post degree fellowship is one program that the University defunded and won’t continue for next year. Can you give us some insight as to what the reasoning is to defund certain programs versus others? 

AM: I don’t know anything about that particular decision. Those types of decisions are made at the decano level.

SL: One topic that’s been more in the news recently is the deportation of international students based on their advocacy. How is WashU planning on providing support to those students?

AM: We are going to provide support to our students as we always provide support to our students. The Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS) and our Office of Student Affairs provides lots of support for our international students. Hopefully we don’t have any of those situations that we’ve read about on other campuses.

SL: I’m noticing above your desk you have a photo from a StudLife article (the second photo in this article), of a picture taken right outside your house. Why do you keep that up there? 

AM: I keep that up there because I find it kind of amusing. This was student advocacy, which I kind of like student advocacy, and I think it’s important for students to be able to express their views even vociferously and with vulgarity. StudLife published that picture, and so I put it up there.

SL: Do you expect the number of faculty members and clinicians at WashU to grow or shrink in the next couple of years as a result of the Trump administration? 

AM: No, because there’s so many different cross-pressures. Depending on what happens with the economy, we may have some opportunities to go out and recruit people that we wouldn’t have been able to recruit otherwise. As I sit here today, I can’t really say whether I expect the faculty to grow or shrink, because there’s so many different moving parts. 

SL: At the beginning of the year, you spoke to Student Union for the first time. How would you describe your relationship with Student Union this past year, and what do you want it to look like going forward?

AM: I was invited to Student Union for the first time. My team members on the [Division of] Student Affairs team are the ones who really have the relationship with the Student Union. That’s not my role. I think they have done a really good job, communicating with, providing counsel, and working with our elected student leaders. I enjoyed going to the SU meeting, it was a good opportunity for me to share some thoughts. If invited, I would certainly come back and do that again. I have talked with the Student Union president throughout the year, and we’ve had a good line of communication. 

SL: One of the public statements you made this past semester was at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) conference in New York. What went into the thinking of that being something that you wanted to go on the record for? 

AM: The ADL was a group that invited me to come and speak. I get invited to come and speak at things public and private all the time. If it is something I’m interested in talking about, and I think I have something to offer, I’ll accept those invitations.

SL: How much has the chancellor role shifted since October 7?

AM: It has dramatically intensified over the last couple of years, and I don’t see that stopping. Up until about a year and a half ago, I spent very, very little time in Washington, D.C. That is not the world that we’re engaged in today, and with that comes a great deal of scrutiny about everything that happens at the University. What’s happening in Washington today, and the necessity to be there, has made being chancellor of WashU much more challenging.

SL: How many times have you been to Washington since the presidential election?

AM: I think five. Three times this year and I think I went once in November and once in December. 

SL: That is to meet with different constituency groups and legislators?

AM: Primarily legislators.

SL: How do you deal with the intensified scrutiny of being the chancellor because your face and character are much more public than some of the other board members? 

AM: About as well as can. My approach, to the greatest extent possible, is to compartmentalize. It is easy to let yourself be beaten up, but at the same time there are so many amazing things that are happening at this University every day. I think part of my job is to celebrate the good stuff and make sure that I remind people of all the great things that Washington University is doing, at the same time being a realist as we navigate through the context that we are in. 

SL: What is one thing you wish you would have been able to spend more time on this school year?

AM: I wish that this school year I would have been able to spend more time on campus. I travel almost every week. I wasn’t able to go to any of the theater productions, athletic events, or cultural shows this year as I would have liked to. But, you know, time is finite. I have a family and sometimes I just have to go home at the end of the day. 

SL: The most intense question we have for you is: Will we be getting a floor routine from you and Simone Biles?

AM: I’ve actually been working on the parallel bars, so I’m thinking I’ll do that.

Editor’s Note: This article was edited the morning of April 7th to correct the mistake that the MFA program was discontinued, when in reality it is the MFA’s post degree fellowship that has been discontinued.