<p>idad - I have a sense we’re more or less on the same page. I don’t think either of us wants to see Chicago spring an engineering and nursing school and go the UPenn or Duke route, but at the same time, having a happier and more content student body seems to be a worthwhile goal. If, down the road, Chicago students tend to have a bit more of the enthusiasm and vibrancy, I think the changes will be for the better.</p>
<p>Also, lets not underestimate how much it would take to make Chicago the sort of place we’d all abhor. Very active, targeted recruiting, perhaps school investment in frat life to make the school suitably fratty (there seems to be a correlation between fratty-ness and pre-professionalism, if you take Duke, UPenn, Northwestern, and Cornell as examples of more pre-professional schools), a clear re-structuring of the school’s mission, etc etc…</p>