@Cue7 Who knows. I am not happy with these decisions, it’s true, but I am more happy than upset with the current state of the university.
We can always hope that a change in leadership (Zimmer has been showing some signs of being on his way out) will bring a president less intent on bringing in radical cultural shifts, but I think the despite everything the sky isn’t quite falling yet. Unabashed nerds are still being admitted, and even the young, new professors seemed to have gotten the memo that at UChicago you learn through suffering. Is it the same school as it was 30 years ago? Probably not. And it probably won’t be the same school 30 years from now. But I think the same is true of any school.
The admissions propaganda, for all the hate it gets, still tries to be “quirky”, and most of the admissions officers try to admit “intellectual curious” people, even if their definition of it has shifted somewhat. The university is making an effort to make the school more accessible, and the money they’re bringing in really does seem to be going to good purposes - North is much better than Max or South, the physicists finally have a nice building, and the administration is making an effort to make the school more accessible. Breck got to keep its name, the extended essay isn’t going away anytime soon, and scav comes every year like it always has.
There are plenty of reasons to be pessimistic about the future of UChicago, but there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic, too. UChicago students are very, very good at finding reasons to be miserable, and I will admit to having moments of blind outrage at the boneheaded decisions made by the University Administration. But I don’t think UChicago is going to turn into Stanford or Princeton.