On November 14, the University of Chicago’s Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression hosted an event entitled “Inside the College: A Conversation with Dean Melina Hale.” The talk presented a mixed bag of promises for change, shoulder-shrugging, and milquetoast dogma. The first half of the 90-minute event focused on maintaining the ever-parroted “life of the mind.” Dean Hale sang the typical praises of the Core Curriculum, arguing that it insulates against the creeping influence of preprofessionalism. To further advance the “life of the mind,” Hale proposed bringing academics into housing, though she gave little detail as to the specific changes that this would involve. Hale asserted that there was little to worry about the consolidation in the arts and humanities (the Division announced this summer that its 15 departments may be consolidated to eight)—it’s good to have fewer departments with a wider intellectual range, she argued.
During the Q&A, I asked about the status of instructional, adjunct, and other non-tenured faculty. Hale expressed no concern, stating that the instructional professors are secure and are taken care of by their union (Faculty Forward, or SEIU Local 73). However, Faculty Forward nearly went on strike last year due to its claims of poor treatment of and low salaries for the nontenured faculty it represents. Another student asked about the proliferation of AI use in Core classes. Currently, faculty set their own AI policies and the college as a whole cannot set a more centralized policy, according to Hale.
While Hale’s spoken commitment to the “life of the mind” is admirable, its preservation requires a higher level of decisive action. Multiple students, including the moderator, were concerned about the deterioration of intellectual pursuit at the university, due in most cases either to preprofessionalism or AI plagiarism. The absence of a centralized AI usage policy leaves a vast patchwork of professor-contrived rules, leaving students veering between different approaches. The administration does not foster an environment that integrates free-floating students into the “life of the mind.” As a result, it’s much easier to turn one’s university experience from a period of intellectual maturation into a search for a private equity job.
I don’t think that the university needs to force students into English classes, but I do think it ought to establish universal expectations for intellectual engagement and academic honesty. This will not naturally spring from an exhausted student body or a teetering faculty: college leadership needs to take matters into their own hands.
Critically,
Reilly Pryma
Image: Gerrit Dou, An Evening School, oil on wood, 1655–57 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).