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So Long, Shimer
President William Craig Rice engineered Shimer College’s controversial move to the IIT campus, but he’s not hanging around to see how it works out.August 31, 2007 By Deanna Isaacs
When I talked with Shimer College president William Craig Rice earlier this summer about how the venerable little school was doing after its first year as a tenant on the IIT campus, he said he was looking forward to the fall of 2008. Last August, at Rice’s urging, Shimer made a controversial move from its cozy cluster of vintage buildings (all but one homes) in Waukegan to the stern Miesian campus on the south side. It’s now a radical pocket tucked into the larger school—its beloved campus traded for the second floor and a main-floor entry at 3424 S. State, in one of IIT’s beige bunkers. Shimer, where students read and talk their way through a Great Books curriculum, made the move in an effort to goose enrollment, which Rice says has been stuck at about 100 for the last 15 years or so.
But instead of bumping up last year the Shimer student body dropped 25 percent. And things weren’t looking any better for this year: Shimer—which accepts serious students without a high school diploma and charges about $22,000 for tuition—had signed up a grand total of 75 undergraduates. Rice said this small number must be transitional and pushed the date for the expected growth spurt ahead to the 2008-’09 school year. Then, last week, just before the start of the fall term, he announced that he’ll be splitting in September to take a job with the National Endowment for the Humanities.
That news left the Shimer board, which he’d clued in two weeks earlier, scrambling for a replacement. According to academic dean David Shiner, no one at the school is positioned to step in. “We don’t have any vice presidents, and this close to the start of the term our [teaching and administrative] lineup’s set.” Shiner says the board wanted a quick fix—an interim president who could fill the gap for a year while a more leisurely search for a permanent hire could be conducted. They turned to the Registry for College and University Presidents for help, which has a roster of mostly retired university executives. (At press time, negotiations were under way.)
But a mere placeholder president could be dangerous at such a delicate juncture. And Shimer’s such an odd duck that it’s unlikely the Registry’s candidates would have had experience anyplace comparable. Shimer’s history, recounted in a 1988 Reader story by Harold Henderson, goes like this: Founded in 1853 as the Mount Carroll Seminary, it was purchased two years later by its head, Frances Wood. It changed to a women’s school in 1866, then 30 years later became the Frances Wood Shimer Academy of the University of Chicago—a traditional prep school and junior college for women, under the supervision of the U. of C. The biggest change came in 1950, when it was transformed into a true U. of C. outpost: a four-year coed college devoted to Robert Maynard Hutchins’s Great Books curriculum. The formal U. of C. connection was dropped just eight years later, but Shimer hung on to both the Great Books curriculum and an enhanced academic reputation. By the mid-1960s, with enrollment at more than 500, the school had taken on debt to expand its physical plant. Then—at the school’s apex—the faculty went to war with one another over issues too obscure to recall even 20 years later, when Henderson wrote. Enrollment began a long decline, and by the late 70s Shimer was bankrupt. In 1979 the Mount Carroll buildings were sold, and the small remaining faculty moved the school to Waukegan.
Money’s always been scarce. Henderson recounts how Wood allegedly handled a sizable school debt back in 1857: she married the creditor, Henry Shimer. Over the years the employees have made numerous sacrifices to keep the place going. For two decades, beginning at the time of the bankruptcy, the school had a single salary policy whereby the janitor—if there’d been one—would have been paid as much as the president. That policy began to erode when they brought in a CFO in 2001, but even today new teachers, no matter what their experience, start at the same salary, and almost all of the dozen faculty members also perform administrative functions. Professors also jump the usual boundaries to teach across the core curriculum of humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. The physical anchors for the program are the specially designed octagonal tables that were moved from Waukegan, where students in classes of no more than 12 gather to consider the primary documents of Western civilization starting with Plato. Shimer claims that by having students engage directly with the sources rather than predigested textbooks, it teaches not what to think but how to think.
It’s not surprising, then, that when Rice proposed the move a couple years ago, students and former students thought deeply about it. On a Shimer blog they debated whether the school would be able to keep its identity and sense of community when students were no longer living together on their own turf. They worried at length about what it would be like to be tenants on a big campus that some perceived as alien—cold and technocratic, in a possibly dangerous neighborhood. Shimer grad Sarah Kimmel, a corporate training consultant, says the worst fears haven’t materialized: “The community seems to be retaining its identity,” and “many of the people who had doubts are now hopeful” about the school’s future. She adds, however, that Rice’s departure is an unexpected disappointment: “We thought his commitment to the school was greater than that.” Rice was hired in 2004; previous president Don Moon, who’s still on the faculty, served 26 years.
Rice says he wasn’t “out looking for a job” when the NEH offered one he couldn’t refuse: he’ll be heading up its education division, overseeing grants to schools, colleges, and universities. (He says he’d have to recuse himself in regard to Shimer, but others surmise his new gig can’t be bad for the school.) All but one of the dozen Waukegan buildings have been sold (for a total of about $2 million); when the last one goes, the school will be free of long-term debt. Meanwhile, though a planned all-years reunion this month was canceled largely because of a disappointing response, fund-raising is booming, relatively speaking. Rice says Shimer raised $1.2 million last year—a 400 percent increase over the average of the three preceding years. (According to other sources, the boost in donations was imperative because it’s more expensive to operate at IIT than it was in Waukegan.) The current budget is about $2.75 million. Rice says the move has also given Shimer a leg up on recruiting: its students now get access to IIT’s facilities and services and the option of registering for IIT classes, making it “the best of both” a Great Books school and a great technical institution. Even if they’re not yet storming the place, he says inquiries from prospective students have jumped. A Shimer spokesman says the school got an average of 500 inquiries a year in Waukegan, and has gotten about 2,000 already for 2008-’09. Rice is convinced that “the move is being vindicated.” He just won’t be around when the real evidence comes in.  Send a letter to the editor.
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Edward McEneely at 9:42 AM on 9/1/2007
I wish I could say this news comes as a surprise, rather than as an unhoped-for confirmation of Bill Rice's true character.
I can vividly remember the rush towards the move to IIT, when Bill brushed aside concerns that enrollment would decline; now that it has, he appears to have no desire to stick around for the dénouement, which would require some assumption of personal responsibility for things now coming to pass.
My contact with fellow Shimerians in the past few years has sadly been limited to a very small number, but nobody I've spoken to seems to feel the school has much of a chance for survival. To my mind, that's not sad, it's heartbreaking, especially now, when the ability to intelligently discuss and think about real ideas has become a skill urgently in demand.
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David Simon at 2:05 PM on 9/2/2007
I am an alumnus of the 60's. I have to say the lessons of critical thinking and classics of literature and Western philosophy have been of great value throughout my life.
The greatest loss the demise of Shimer represents is the loss of access to a superior classical education for the economically "average", yet, intellectually advanced student. Soon, as in the past, only the eleite rich will have what is considered a "proper" education for leadership. David Simon
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Erasmus' Roomate at 4:16 PM on 9/5/2007
No big surprise. Look at the guy's bio on the Shimer website--he's a jumper and a climber. His leaving isn't the worst thing for Shimer, though, as he was a bad fit. The move to Chicago, however, was his baby, and it is quite sad that he doesn't have the integrity to stick around and deal with the consequences of his half-baked idea, which, if you've ever been on the horrid IIT campus, was clearly a bad one.
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Old Shimerian at 9:29 PM on 9/6/2007
Shimer’s real problems went beyond Bill Rice. Shimer has a culture of mediocre management and poor decision-making across the board as well as a lack of teamwork among staffers and poor negotiation skills that have increased costs unnecessarily. The school’s urgent need to enlist alumni via a re-union (cancelled this summer) and festival honoring Robert Hutchins (cancelled also this summer and that would have built bridges with the U of C) were the sad outcomes. If Shimer survives it will be in spite of itself.
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catherine yronwode at 2:33 AM on 9/10/2007
This is both sad and not unexpected. The move to the ugly and urban campus in Chicago was unacceptable. The desertion of his post by the man who forced that move is grotesque. I look back on my time at Mount Carroll during the 1960s as an unusual interlude in a life of learning, and it is painful to view the future in which Shimer will most likely cease to exist.
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Natron at 10:14 PM on 9/10/2007
I feel many of the above comments to be myopic. Shimer's current ability to market itself has increased 100 fold because of 3 reasons: location, location, location. Chicago offers a continual breeding ground of new ideas and experiences which will better shape future student's lives in accordance with the demands of post-collegiate life. The ability to readily access internships in real career oriented paths has dramatically increased, as has general opportunity for exposure to new & life changing/challanging opportunity. As far as William Rice goes, well, he received an offer that nearly any reasoning individual would be absoluely foolish not to take. You want a similar offer, no?
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barbino at 8:38 PM on 9/11/2007
I agree with poster Natron and add the following words from our beloved Don Moon, Rice's predecessor: "This thing (Shimer) must continue." I believe it was part of a graduation address right before Rice was hired. So far, "this thing" has continued, way far beyond the Mt. Carroll bankruptcy and the Waukegan years. Shimer is an everlasting phoenix:from time to time it reemerges from its own ashes. After all, they taught us philosophy, didn't they?
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Nathaniel Lefebvre at 1:51 PM on 9/20/2007
In my few years at Shimer I've seen quite a bit of transition. I started on the Waukegan campus with what many now consider to be the Old Guard and also the last big class, and I finished my time this past year on the IIT campus. I was regaled with stories of the way Shimer used to be (as David Shiner put it, "the golden years of Shimer are always five years before you get here!"), and I've watched it turn into what it is now, and played my own part in those events.
Cheer up, friends. We've seen much worse. It doesn't get a whole lot more bleak than having the Board vote to close the school, or moving an entire college into one small building in a town miles away from our ancient campus. But we survived then, and we will survive this as well.
But rather than sit back and bemoan the fate of a school you all are obviously invested in, why not help us? Our greatest strength has always been our students and alumni, and the word of mouth they spread. You are the people who can do the most good, and not by sending a $5 bill either. I'm sure that all of you, in your various locations, can think of one person who would be perfect for the school. So tell them about it!
This isn't a tragedy, it's an opportunity to reassess our values and to decide where we want this to lead. I would rather constant flux than eternal stagnation, for at least in a state of flux we can progress forward.
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New Shimerian at 12:35 AM on 11/22/2007
Sadly, this is all I know of Shimer (besides visiting and loving Waukegan a few years ago).
However, I will not let it fall to anything less than what everyone loves about Shimer.
It will not become some average college, St John's clone, or IIT's humanities department.
We will keep doing what we do. People may try to turn us into some business, but we are first and foremost Shimer.
And right now, we just need all the help we can get to keep it Shimer.
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Cassie Sherman at 12:08 PM on 3/6/2008
Just ran across this again when looking at Shimer's Wikipedia article. It may encourage people to know that enrollment for Fall 2008 is looking up--way up--and that our interim president, Ron Champagne, is doing a great job of raising money for Shimer.
I wasn't part of the planning of the move, but I've been told that the college expected to take a hit in enrollment when the move happened, temporarily--and that bouncing back as Shimer has been known to do was also part of the plan, too. A plan which, yes, was Bill Rice's plan--and which is going along just fine despite his having moved on. Just about anyone would jump at the opportunity to have his current post at the NEH and it can hardly hurt Shimer to have a friend there. I say congrats to him and onward for the rest of us.
There's a Alumni Reunion coming up this summer, for everyone who went to any Shimer campus. If your impression is that the college's circumstances are bleak in Chicago, come to the reunion and see if it doesn't change your tune.
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Meg N at 3:48 PM on 3/15/2008
This is my second semester here at Shimer, and I've heard a lot from older students who used to be in Waukegan how much they miss it there. But my mother is also an alum of Shimer, and she came right before the transition from Mt. Carroll to Waukegan, and I know she misses that campus. It's always going to seem like the past was better than the present (I like David Shiner's comment on that matter), but I do agree with Nathaniel L.'s post above. There's problems with the move for sure, but we should take advantage of where we are now.
Being in the city, I do miss being really "in nature" with trees and grass and green growing things, which seems to me to be a part of Shimer's image given its two previous locations, but I've found plenty in Chicago to be delighted with. I spent my entire first semester taking as much advantage of my U-Pass as possible to travel all over the city and see the different neighborhoods, locations, parks, etc. It is true that Shimer's ethos and location right now do not match. But we're working on revamping the Shimer floor, and there are plans in the works for decoration and refurbishment of the entire floor, bringing Shimer's image more in-line with its curriculum.
I don't think the IIT campus is ugly, either. Architecture and cold hard lines are not my strong point, but I've stood at the top of the State Street Village dorms and watched the sun go down in the west, and the light setting all this metal on fire is beautiful. And I've sat outside the Shimer building on the softest, greenest grass you can imagine (IIT waters it quite often) and read in the sun for hours on end. Sure, we're on a borrowed campus. But that doesn't mean we can't make our space our own, and find the Shimer things in that exist, as they do if you look hard enough. I've already found the perfect trees to climb and read poetry once the weather gets warm enough.
I suppose what my long-winded response is trying to say is that in short, Shimer's location has changed, but its spirit hasn't. And that spirit more than anything else will continue to affect everything around it, and gradually change its very environment, as it does to students who come here.
I have high hopes for Shimer's survival. It turns out people who are dedicated and loyal to the college, and as long as it continues to do that it will not die.
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