WashU’s Ordered Liberty Project is a universitywide effort grounded in a simple but profound conviction: that a healthy democracy depends on the free exchange of ideas — and that institutions of higher education must be active stewards of that exchange. We are not alone in this responsibility, but we are uniquely positioned to lead.
By ordered liberty, we mean something both old and deeply relevant: that individual freedom is most meaningful and most enduring when paired with the habits, institutions, and norms that give it structure and purpose. It is liberty not as license, but as a disciplined freedom shaped by mutual responsibility, law, and moral restraint. The freedom to speak — and to listen. To dissent — and to reason. To pursue our own good, but always in a shared civic space.
In that sense, the Ordered Liberty Project is not a departure from what we already do at WashU. It is a name for it. Across disciplines and programs, our faculty and students are wrestling openly and rigorously with the most pressing and contested questions of our time. We are investing in the conditions that allow that work to flourish: freedom of thought, diversity of perspective, and a culture of serious argument and mutual respect. With this project, we commit to deepening and elevating that work, and to bringing it into fuller view.
The phrase “ordered liberty” has a long intellectual lineage. Though he never used the exact phrase, Edmund Burke wrote of the importance of “liberty connected with order.” It has been attributed to George Washington and was given constitutional weight in Justice Benjamin Cardozo’s 1937 opinion in Palko v. Connecticut. But regardless of origin, the idea of ordered liberty captures the central tension and promise of the American experiment: freedom guided by responsibility, diversity held together by shared commitments, and a civic life sustained not by uniformity but by principled pluralism.
The mission of WashU is to “act in service of truth through the formation of leaders, the discovery of knowledge, and the treatment of patients for the betterment of our region, our nation, and our world.” We believe leadership belongs to anyone willing to step up, speak with conviction, and bring others along in pursuit of a common purpose, and we are working hard to empower everyone on our campus to discover how they can lead in their own way.
If we want a society that values liberty, we need institutions that teach how to use liberty wisely — to reason well, listen carefully, and act with integrity. That is what the Ordered Liberty Project is about. And WashU is committed to it.
Andrew D. Martin
Chancellor