UofC Gossip

While I was over at the house of one UofC administrator, watching a slide show on Vienna, I learned some interesting tidbits:

1. Hutchins destroyed the University by building the RI with money from the Rockefeller endowment. This led to further dippings in to the account, which did not allow it to grow. Furthermore, the need to rehabilitate the neighborhood in the 50's sapped a lot of money that the University did not foresee. They got so depreate that they started admitting 15 years olds and giving BA's to 19 year olds in order to raise money from undergrad tuition. This then led to the utter devaluation of our undergraduate degree, to the point that no grad school would accept it. High-Schools were then withholding transcripts of bright high-school kids who wanted to apply here and enrollment dropped to below 1,500 for the entire college.
That's why Hutchins left, he was forced out by the board.

2. Admission is capped at 1,200 (per class) for the foreseeable future because the University cannot provide housing to more undergrads (and promises housing to all first years).

3. The new dorm is breaking ground June '06 and will be attempted to fit into the environment--no more orange brick. Hopefully something like the new GSB.

4. While the UofC does not look at the US News rankings they get a lot of angry calls from younger alums when our ranking drops. Make of that what you will