Success 101
University of Chicago president Don Randel has won over a tough home crowd—all the while enacting most of his ousted predecessor's controversial agenda. His smooth transition demonstrates the art of persuasion, and it's good news for the school.
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At the private Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., college counselor Diane Scattergood has seen a change. Beginning with the class of 1999, applications to Chicago have been climbing by 5 percent each year. She credits the outreach efforts with speaking directly to high school seniors. "Kids are coming back from school visits actually excited about the place," Scattergood says.
While Randel gives little credence to college rankings in "the popular press," as he calls it, the U. of C.'s place in U.S. News and World Report's annual survey has risen from a low of number 14 in 1998 to number nine in 2001. That jump occurred in part because the university retained more of its freshmen and boosted its overall graduation rate. Together, these factors amount to 20 percent of a school's final ranking, says Robert Morse, who is in charge of developing the rankings formula at U.S. News. "Whether or not they made changes for the rankings or because they thought it would be a good idea, that can be debated," he says.
Some of Sonnenschein's detractors continue to worry that the larger student body and modified classes will change the university's character. One former professor gave his dark analysis: "The last remaining distinction about the University of Chicago is the idea that it's different." But in general, most people seem to be giving the benefit of the doubt to the new captain. "I'd be less confident with these policies in place if Hugo was still president," says Andrew Abbott, the sociology professor.* * *
After stepping down as president, Sonnenschein spent his first weekend with his family on a beach in St. Joseph, Michigan, watching Fourth of July fireworks to a live performance of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. He spent a year "out of residence" from the Hyde Park campus, a respite that he needed as much as his critics. He retreated to Princeton in September 2000 to teach microeconomics. He skied in Vancouver, biked in Vermont, and read Crime and Punishment for the first time. When he returned to Chicago's economics department in 2001, he placed his new office computer on an old wooden desk once used by Robert Hutchins, the legendary U. of C. president.
In conversations last winter, Sonnenschein was reluctant to reflect on the volatile end of his presidency. He emphasized that his policies were the work of many besides himself-Dean Boyer and Provost Stone, to name two-and as president he had to take responsibility for them. "I was quite persuaded the changes that we were making were, on balance, good, useful changes," he says.
But in an April e-mail, he graciously acknowledged that his salesmanship had suffered from flaws. "I have little doubt that what I had to say could have been said in better ways (among these by making it clearer that I more fully appreciated the risks)," he wrote, "and I have every belief that it is being said in better ways now." He added that he had been fully aware of the bumps and irritations he created. "Were these absolutely held to a minimum?" he wrote. "Doubtful. Would I have preferred to have done it better? Of course!"
Still, Sonnenschein is pleased that many of his predictions have come true and that the university community has warmed to them. And for all his public modesty, privately he is proud of his time at the helm. That emotion shone through in the e-mail: "The satisfaction is in the fact that we are really getting there and that I had a role in moving it along."
As for the claims that Sonnenschein's vision would abandon intellectual rigor in exchange for happier students and a few extra parties, the school is fighting back with an amended message: Good times can be had in Chicago's old ways. "We try to make it clear that the experience here is rooted in the intellectual experience," says Randel, "and the fun you can have as a part of that."
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