<p>I can't believe nobody has posted this yet. I was out of town so I didn't see my copy until today. It raised a lot of concern for me, I mean its not all that shocking, but its never good to read your institution has financial difficulty. </p>
<p>One thing that stood out to me was that Cornell decided to cut the breadth and focus on the depth of what they were already good at. To me, this doesn't seem like a bad strategy. Chicago is now starting an engineering program, which in theory would be excellent for the school. But in my opinion it may take too many resources and attention away from what the University really excels at. The money needed to develop an engineering program on par with the rest of the school will be tough to justify spending.</p>
<p>I know quite a few professors in the natural and physical science departments who have considered leaving because there isn’t an engineering school. In fact, we just lost an amazing chemistry professor last year to Northwestern. In order be competitive in hiring and retaining top faculty members in the sciences, especially in the 21st century, it is imperative to have an engineering school, not necessarily one that diverges from the sciences but one that complements it.</p>
<p>This article doesn’t really talk about UChicago’s debt levels, and it doesn’t really seem like the top schools (protected by large endowments) are really in trouble here. This is more about student debt and many schools’ (not the top schools) over-spending.</p>
<p>Ummm, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. As the article points out, the University of Chicago has been on a huge building boom (of which you will be an enormous beneficiary, if you go to Chicago). It has one of the strongest endowments in American education. It should expect to reap significant benefits in the next few decades from having expanded the size of the College significantly, increased undergraduate satisfaction, and produced more graduates interested in economic success than previously. The University is in far, far better shape economically than it was twenty years ago.</p>
<p>As for restricting what one does – they just practically fought a civil war over that at UVa. The article doesn’t give you anywhere near enough information to understand or to judge what’s going on at Cornell or anywhere else. Are they talking about dropping Classics and German Literature altogether? (That’s what the trustees who fired UVa’s president then had to reinstate her wanted, among other things.) I doubt it. Are they saying the English Department (which is very strong) does not need to have someone with tenure covering 15th Century prose? More reasonable.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Chicago isn’t remotely planning to develop a general engineering program on par with the rest of the school. It decided to brand a bunch of stuff it was doing already in the medical and chemical fields “molecular engineering,” to raise some money with that slogan, and to hire some new faculty to solidify the research center. It was a smart, promotional move. It’s not clear when, or to what extent, there will be any undergraduate offerings from the new program, although undergraduates will probably work as research assistants if they want.</p>