WashU Chancellor Andrew Martin sat down with Student Life on Tuesday, Sept. 9 to discuss how the University is advocating for WashU in Washington, D.C.; navigating financial obstacles; supporting international students; protecting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives; and approaching long-term construction plans.

During an April panel on growing public distrust in higher education hosted by the Association of American Universities (AAU), Christopher Eisgruber — Princeton president and AAU chair — criticized Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and WashU Chancellor Andrew Martin for their handling of President Trump’s attacks on universities, according to an article published by The Atlantic on Aug. 11. 

When Kehoe, Hanaway, or any Missouri political leader comes to campus next, we, Missouri’s future, have to show them that we vehemently disagree with the democratic backsliding that these lawmakers are either spearheading or complicit in.

You are beginning your college journey during a period marked by uncertainty, fear, anger, and a sense of helplessness — a reality shared by students who started in recent years amid events like the first election of President Donald Trump, the pandemic, and nationwide protests met with force on college campuses.

So, what can the WashU community do in this precarious moment? The answer must begin with a clear-eyed recognition that we now operate in a fundamentally altered landscape in which both academic freedom and the institutions supporting it face direct government hostility.

WashU’s Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing has ended its postgraduate fellowship, a one-year program where students in the MFA program had the opportunity to teach classes as a postgraduate fellow for a year following the completion of their two-year degree.

In an email addressed to the WashU community last Monday, Chancellor Andrew Martin emphasized that the WashU administration was doing “all [it] can to advocate for the university” in light of the recent investigations and funding cuts under the Trump Administration.

We ask that all students and members of the WashU community, regardless of their political affiliations, be willing to protect everyone’s inalienable rights, whether that be through writing letters to the WashU administration or standing up for peers who are being threatened and targeted. We also urge the University administration to clearly and transparently state the actions it intends to take if a WashU international student’s visa or green card is revoked without the University’s consultation, and if federal agents attempt to detain a student on campus grounds.

Martin and Diermeier’s hubris becomes even clearer when applied to other university departments. Is the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies department expected to be neutral on the topic of feminism? The Latin American Studies department on human rights abuses by the U.S. government? WashU’s own WashU & Slavery Project is certainly not neutral on its subject matter, nor should it be! Academic work is often quite political, and that’s OK. 

As the Student Life editorial board, we call on Chancellor Martin and the WashU administration to stand up for minority students on campus, just as they do for their researchers.