From the Office of the Chancellor

It’s more important than ever that we make it very clear where we stand, what we stand for, and the value we bring to our nation and the world. At WashU, our focus is squarely on our mission – research, education and patient care. In order to have our greatest impact in each of these areas, we must recommit ourselves to putting these priorities above all else. And we must make our intentions known.

The National Institutes of Health have made cuts to research funding for facilities and administration. We want to assure you that the university’s leadership team is fully activated and closely monitoring the situation to see what these cuts could mean for our mission-critical work, and to ensure that we are prepared to respond as needed on behalf of the institution.

At institutions of distinction like WashU, we value diversity of opinion and we grow in civil debate. We choose WashU because we want to be challenged. And one way we do this is to expose ourselves to ideas that push us out of our intellectual comfort zones. 

As we prepare to step away from our daily routines for the Thanksgiving holiday, I am reflecting upon the role of tradition in our lives. Just like family life, university life is full of traditions. They may change over time, but some, like the alma mater that now rings out from Graham Chapel at noon each day, or the annual wonder of yellow leaves raining down on Ginkgo Allée each November, have been part of the fabric of WashU culture for a century.

The concentric circles model of human behavior was created by the second-century Stoic philosopher Hierocles and further developed by modern psychologists. It depicts a continuum of impact in which the innermost circle ripples out into broader and broader spheres of influence – all of which, of course, are connected at the center.