As WashU continues to grapple with improving national name recognition and school identity, we caution the university against emulating Ivy Plus institutions and prioritizing rankings over becoming an institution that advances social progress.

After finishing Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) in a modest surplus, WashU projects to operate at a narrow $7.4 million loss in Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26), according to a webinar shared by the University in an email with faculty and staff on Oct. 6. Under the University’s approved budget for FY26, WashU is expected to bring in $5.04 billion in revenues, while spending $5.047 billion in operating expenses.

I am deeply in support of the expansion of university resources and the long-term sustainability of higher education. I am not convinced, however, that tying up billions of dollars in private capital is the best way to fulfill WashU’s obligations as an educational institution.

Divestment campaigns have achieved their goals at other universities. So what’s stopping divestment at WashU?

In a meeting attended by nearly 200 total students, Student Union (SU) Senate passed a resolution 15 to 5 with one abstention, via an unprecedented anonymous vote, calling on Washington University to divest from and cut professional ties with Boeing, March 19. 

Washington University Chancellor Andrew Martin sat down for an interview with Student Life on March 5, nearly a year after his last Q&A in April 2023. Martin spoke about recent student activism on campus, the state of the endowment, the University’s recent and future property purchases, and where he buys his glasses.

Green Action, a student group focused on environmental justice and advocacy, held a rally calling on Washington University to divest from fossil fuels as a part of its Fossil Free WashU campaign, Oct. 27.

Students rallied for fossil fuel divestment at WU, in a protest organized by Fossil Free WashU

The unprecedented increase in the University’s endowment has led to questions about where the money should be spent.

We want to see the University keep its word and actually put the funding toward student support and programs that directly benefit the WashU and St. Louis community — not towards aesthetic changes and facility expansions that have no real impact on the WashU student experience.