April 7, 2025, by Dean Hoke: This profile of Washington and Lee University is the eighth in a series presenting small colleges throughout the United States.
Background
Founded in 1749, Washington and Lee University (W&L) is a private liberal arts college located in Lexington, Virginia. With a 325-acre campus in the Shenandoah Valley, W&L is the ninth-oldest college in the U.S. Originally Augusta Academy, it became Washington College after George Washington’s 1796 gift. It later took on its current name in honor of Robert E. Lee, who served as president following the Civil War. The school became coeducational in 1985 and is consistently ranked among the top liberal arts colleges nationally. The President of Washington and Lee since 2017 is William (Will) Dudley.
W&L enrolls approximately 1,900 undergraduates and 375 law students. The university boasts an 8:1 student-faculty ratio and an average class size of 15. The university is renowned for its rigorous academics, a single-sanction honor system, and a strong emphasis on ethical leadership and community.
Curricula
W&L offers 36 majors and 41 minors across disciplines such as the humanities, sciences, arts, business, journalism, and engineering. It’s the only leading liberal arts college with accredited undergraduate programs in business and journalism. Students can pursue either a B.A. or B.S. degree and are encouraged to pursue interdisciplinary interests. Popular majors include Business Administration, Economics, Political Science, and interdisciplinary areas such as Environmental Studies and Poverty Studies. Signature programs include the Shepherd Program for the Interdisciplinary Study of Poverty and Human Capability, combining classroom learning with community engagement on social justice issues. Over 60% of undergraduates study abroad, and a significant number participate in internships and research, often supported by university grants.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Economic Impact
W&L is not only an academic institution but also a major economic engine for Lexington and the surrounding Shenandoah Valley. In addition to educating students, W&L significantly boosts the local economy through employment, spending, and partnerships. The university is one of the largest employers in the region, with roughly 870 faculty and staff. A comprehensive economic impact study in 2010 found that W&L was responsible for over $225 million in economic activity in the region in a single year.
Enrollment Trends
As of Fall 2024, Washington and Lee’s total undergraduate enrollment stands at 1,866 undergraduate students, with an additional 355 students in the law school. Over the past decade, undergraduate enrollment has remained stable.
The undergraduate acceptance rate has declined from 24% to 14% over the past five years, reflecting increased selectivity. The gender balance has also shifted to slightly favor women (51%). The university maintains a first-year retention rate of 96-98% and six-year graduation rates remain steady between 93% and 95%, reflecting a high level of student satisfaction and institutional support.
Degrees Awarded by Major
In the Class of 2020 -21, W&L conferred degrees across a wide spectrum of majors. Below is a breakdown by number of degrees awarded that year:
Return of Investment
According to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce’s study, Ranking 4,600 Colleges by ROI (2025), W&L offers a strong return on investment. In this study, ROI is calculated as the difference between a graduate’s cumulative earnings over time and the total out-of-pocket cost of attending college, which refers to the net cost after accounting for grants and scholarships.
For students earning a bachelor’s degree, W&L’s median ROI significantly exceeds the average for private nonprofit colleges, both in the short and long term.
Source: Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, analysis of U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard data, 2009–2022.
Alumni
W&L boasts a vibrant alumni network that is both tightly knit and far-reaching. There are over 25,000 living W&L alumni worldwide, spread across all 50 states and dozens of countries. Alumni often refer to themselves as “Generals” (after the school’s athletic moniker) and maintain strong ties to the institution long after graduation.
Notable Alumni: W&L’s alumni list includes prominent figures in law, government, business, journalism, literature, and the arts:
Endowment and Financial Standing
W&L’s financial foundation is exceptionally strong for a liberal arts institution of its size. As of 2024, W&L’s endowment is nearly $2.0 billion, placing it among the top liberal arts college endowments in the nation (and even comparable to some mid-sized research universities).
In a typical year, endowment earnings contribute roughly 40-50% of the university’s operating budget. The 2023 analysis by Forbes rated W&L a solid “B+” in financial health (score of about 3.34 out of 4.5)
Why is Washington & Lee Important?
With its blend of tradition and innovation, W&L continues to influence American higher education. It upholds the time-honored virtues of a liberal arts college—close mentoring, a broad education, honor, and civility—while evolving to meet contemporary challenges by opening doors to more students and engaging with real-world issues. W&L remains a cornerstone institution among small colleges, illustrating the enduring importance of the liberal arts model in shaping thoughtful, responsible citizens.
Dean Hoke is Managing Partner of Edu Alliance Group, a higher education consultancy, and a Senior Fellow with the Sagamore Institute. He formerly served as President/CEO of the American Association of University Administrators (AAUA). With decades of experience in higher education leadership, consulting, and institutional strategy, he brings a wealth of knowledge on small colleges’ challenges and opportunities. Dean, along with Kent Barnds, is a co-host for the podcast series Small College America.
More than 700 University of Washington research coordinators and consultants have unionized, joining already organized research scientists and engineers there to create a bargaining unit more than 2,000 members strong, the union announced.
UAW 4121 said in a news release Tuesday that research coordinators and consultants are largely health-care professionals focused on research.
“They are responsible for running clinical trials, liaising with patients and scientists, and ensuring that research results are grounded in rigorous science,” the release said. “Despite the critical role they play at the university, many report job insecurity, a lack of transparency around career advancement and workload, low compensation relative to cost of living, and more as their reasons for forming a union.”
“The University of Washington recognizes and respects the right of employees to organize,” university spokesperson Victor Balta wrote in an email to Inside Higher Ed. “UW values the research coordinators and consultants who help make vital work possible and we look forward to negotiating in good faith their inclusion into the existing UAW 4121 bargaining unit of research scientists and research engineers.”
Mike Sellars, executive director of Washington State’s Public Employment Relations Commission, said his agency certified the unionization of the research coordinators and consultants Thursday. Nearly 400 employees submitted cards in favor of unionizing. A union spokesperson said cards were collected over the past year.
Mike Miller, director of UAW Region 6, said in the news release, “As workers and workers rights’ are under assault by the Trump administration, it’s never been more important to have the rights and protections of a union.”
Amid the urban hum of downtown Seattle and the friendly clatter of a FIRE supporters’ meetup, a consequential alliance was born.
Two alumni of the University of Washington, separated by generations but united by a shared purpose, converged in conversation. Cole Daigneault, a freshly minted graduate from the class of 2024, and Bill Severson, a two-time UW graduate who earned his bachelor’s and law degree in the early 1970s, lamented over the encroaching illiberalism at their alma mater.
That evening’s conversation, later sustained through an alumni email listserv, soon crystallized into Husky Alumni for Academic Excellence.
This new, independent UW alumni group has articulated a mission that is ambitious yet essential: “To reinvigorate free and open academic inquiry and to foster a campus ethos where civil discourse and intellectual courage flourish.”
“My hope with this alumni group,” Daigneault says, “is to rally former UW students, who like me, are concerned about the culture of discourse on campus. The group will also be a place for graduated students to continue the fight long after they leave.”
Daigneault’s early activism was catalyzed by the controversy surrounding UW professor Stuart Reges, whose parody land acknowledgment and subsequent legal battles with the university became a major flashpoint in the free speech landscape. Inspired by Reges’ story — and FIRE’s robust defense of him — Daigneault founded Huskies for Liberty in 2022, a UW student organization devoted to “the preservation of free expression and individual liberty on campus and beyond.”
The fight for free speech on campus, as history has long demonstrated, is never truly won. It must be waged anew by each generation.
Furthermore, through FIRE’s Campus Scholar Program, Daigneault organized “Free Speech Matters,” UW’s first student-led conference devoted to the enduring relevance of free speech, civil discourse, and academic freedom.
Alongside Daigneault, Bill Severson brings over a half-century of legal experience and an unabiding love for his alma mater. His concerns over the state of higher education were sparked by the 2017 debacle at Evergreen State College, where an angry mob of students confronted Professor Bret Weinstein for publicly objecting to a proposal that white students and professors leave campus for Evergreen’s annual “Day of Absence.”
“I was appalled by how that situation was handled,” Severson recounts. “It led me to explore thinkers like Jonathan Haidt and Steven Pinker and organizations like FIRE.”
Severson’s recollections of his time in school are colored with a mixture of nostalgia and grave concern. “When I attended UW in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the atmosphere on campus was markedly different than today. Then, as now, students and faculty leaned left, but it was not a monoculture and there was not such a marked intolerance of other viewpoints.”
The emergent partnership between Daigneault and Severson is not only remarkable, it highlights an enduring truth: The defense of free speech on campus is not a transient endeavor but a generational relay, requiring both the vigor of youth and wisdom of age. One without the other is as useful as a compass without a needle.
Daigneault and Severson’s decision to form Husky Alumni for Academic Excellence is timely, to say the least.
“Last year, free speech became a major campus issue due to widespread protests over the Israel-Hamas War,” Daigneault recalls. “Unfortunately, alongside many instances of protected expression, we also saw a rise in illiberal behaviors, such as shouting down speakers, preventing students from accessing public areas, and even vandalizing historic buildings on campus.”
Daigneault’s reflections are not mere anecdotes. They are substantiated by FIRE’s reports. UW has consistently languished near the bottom of FIRE’s College Free Speech Rankings (in 2022, UW was the lowest ranked public university). And 2024 was not much better: UW ranked 226 out of 257 schools.
The data is grim:
Among the faculty and administration, the picture is scarcely brighter. According to FIRE’s 2024 Faculty Survey Report, over one-third of UW faculty respondents confessed to moderating their writing to avoid controversy, while 40% expressed uncertainty about the administration’s commitment to protecting free speech.
FIRE joined Rep. Murphy’s annual Campus Free Speech Roundtable to discuss the free speech opportunities and challenges facing colleges.
For Severson, the conclusion is clear.
“Educational institutions have lost their way,” he says, though he insists there is still hope. “Alumni can be a force to push schools back toward their mission — promoting honest inquiry, academic excellence, the pursuit of truth, and the dissemination of knowledge.”
In the burgeoning movement of alumni stewardship, Daigneault and Severson offer a clarion call to UW alumni who not only revere the university’s storied past (UW is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast), but also seek to reclaim it against the present maladies of orthodoxy and intellectual timidity.
The fight for free speech on campus, as history has long demonstrated, is never truly won. It must be waged anew by each generation. Daigneault and Severson have valiantly taken up the mantle. The question remains, who will join them?
If you’re ready to join Husky Alumni for Academic Excellence, or if you’re interested in forming a free speech alumni alliance at your alma mater, contact us at alumni@thefire.org. We’ll connect you with like-minded alumni and offer guidance on how to effectively protect free speech and academic freedom for all.
