Laurel and Cliff Asness’ relationship with Washington University in St. Louis began with their daughter Katie, one of the oldest of their two sets of twins. Katie entered the university as a first-year student in 2021. She will earn a bachelor’s degree in art history in May.
The Greenwich, Connecticut-based couple’s engagement with WashU increased when they joined the Parents Council in 2022. Impressed by the university’s leadership and the range of opportunities available to Katie and fellow undergraduates, they also became benefactors, making gifts for scholarships and the Annual Fund.
In October, the Asnesses expanded their investment in WashU with a $3 million pledge through the Asness Family Foundation to establish the Laurel and Cliff Asness Distinguished Professorship. The endowed position will be awarded to a faculty member whose scholarship and teaching focus on classical liberalism. The recipient could come from such diverse fields as law, economics, political science, philosophy, and business.
The couple have a history of supporting organizations that promote classical liberalism, a political and economic philosophy whose tenets include individual liberty, free enterprise, and equality before the law. Cliff, co-founder and managing principal of global investment firm AQR Capital Management, is a trustee of the American Enterprise Institute and the Atlas Society, two think tanks associated with classical liberalism.
Their Asnesses’ gift forms the foundation for Chancellor Andrew D. Martin’s efforts to launch the Ordered Liberty Project, an initiative to further distinguish WashU as a champion of academic freedom and free expression. The project will provide a unifying structure for existing programs that advance classical liberal ideals. It also will bring together faculty and students from across the university for collaboration, discussion, and debate.
“Laurel and Cliff’s support strengthens our ability to make the university a training ground for thoughtful leaders who engage with diverse perspectives and a site of productive scholarly dialogue across disciplines and ideologies,” Martin says. “Through this work, we can explore issues central to our democracy and help define the role of citizens and government in American society.”
How would you describe your daughter’s undergraduate experience?
Laurel Asness: WashU has been great for Katie. From the beginning, she immersed herself in campus life and has been involved in several curricular and extracurricular activities. Furthermore, she has developed an amazingly large, diverse, and impressive set of great friends. That says something about the kind of kids WashU is attracting.
What have you learned about the university as parents and Parents Council members?
Cliff Asness: We have been impressed with how well the whole WashU community embraces undergraduate students and welcomes classical liberal scholarship. We have seen firsthand through Katie’s educational journey that professors facilitate the free exchange of ideas among students. We have four kids in different colleges, so we know this is not always the case. Also, WashU’s student population is very outstanding. We have met so many extraordinary students from all over the country who have chosen to spend four years at the university because it offers them enormous opportunities to grow and learn.
Why did you begin giving to the university?
Laurel: Our philanthropy has always had an educational pillar. We support all stages of education, from kindergarten through graduate school. We know that good teachers and professors can change the direction of a student’s life, and investing in schools that are focused on quality faculty and teachers is very important to us. When we find school leadership that we think is great, we lean heavily toward funding their priorities as well as our own. We definitely think we’ve found that at WashU.
We hope students around the country will see WashU as a beacon where every student has a voice and the chance to learn from diverse perspectives in a respectful environment.
Cliff Asness
What does classical liberalism mean to you?
Cliff: It’s a branch of liberalism that advocates for civil liberties and free markets under the rule of law. When I think about classical liberalism, I think about freedom: freedom of expression; economic and political freedom; and limited government. I think about classical economics and the principles of Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Milton Friedman, and Friedrich Hayek, among others. Basically, it’s a free society with some structure and guardrails around it.
Why did you want to support a professorship in this area?
Cliff: We believe that now is the time to invest in institutions that are promoting the free exchange of ideas. We hope our gift will help the university attract professors committed to interdisciplinary scholarship and creating programming related to free speech, the rule of law, liberty, and civic engagement. More broadly, we hope students around the country will see WashU as a beacon where every student has a voice and the chance to learn from diverse perspectives in a respectful environment.
Why is WashU a good place for this investment?
Cliff: Chancellor Martin doesn’t just talk the talk; he walks the walk. For the last five years, he has taught hundreds of undergraduates in his “Free Speech on Campus” class. He’s fostering a culture of collaboration among quantitative social science researchers in economics, political science, and law. Working together, these faculty members can advance the study of free markets and constitutional democracy. Many elite universities don’t support these principles as firmly as we would like. Funding things we believe in at a place that “gets it” is a perfect marriage.
Laurel: We have gotten to know Chancellor Martin over the last four years, and we continue to be impressed with his leadership and scholarship as well as his commitment to building a culture of free speech on campus and strengthening collaboration across disciplines and schools. He’s thinking big about these issues.
What would you say to encourage others to give to WashU?
Cliff: We’ve seen our daughter grow and thrive at the university because of the people she’s surrounded by: her friends, her professors, and everyone at WashU who contributes to the student experience. Our gift shows our appreciation for and confidence in the concepts that Chancellor Martin embraces, including free speech, viewpoint diversity, and open inquiry under the rule of law. We hope our support puts Chancellor Martin’s Ordered Liberty Project on other like-minded philanthropists’ list of priorities at WashU.
Contact us to learn more about establishing an endowed position at WashU.
