11 \
‘An Ethos of
Excellence’
The University of Chicago cares very much
about intellectual challenge and achievement,
and very little about making an impression
■ t's Tuesday night at 10:30, and we’re
Btouring the most popular hangout at
Bthe University of Chicago: the Regen
stein Library. Everywhere you go through
out the five floors of "the Reg," you can see
Chicago students doing what they most en
joy doing, upwards of 16 hours a day, every
day—studying. Ei<eryone at the University
of Chicago, it seems, goes to the library
every night And that’s why the Reg is more
than a quiet place to learn: it’s the social
hub of the school as well. If economics jun
ior Christina Tavares expects to see her
boyfriend, she must go to the Reg—"second
floor, first cubicle on the right"—not that
she wouldn't be there most nights anyway
When folks do party, it’s usually in the
form of brief respites at nearby fraterni
ties—and even these restrained festivities
are truthfully called "study breaks.”
But then, the University of Chicago has
always been dedicated to intellectual rigor
and scholarly success. Funded at its incep
tion with a few of the Rockefeller millions,
the school opened on Oct. 1.1892, witheight
former college presidents on its fnculty.
(Today nearly lOOChicagoalumsarepresi
dents or chancellors at other U.S. colleges
and universities * Thus far, 54 people af
filiated with the school—as faculty, stu
dentsand/or researchers—have won Nobel
Frizes. Sometimes the profusion of laure
ates can be dizzying When physics Prof.
James Cronin won his Nobel in 1980, for
example, heasked that his press conference
be scheduled around a class that he was
taking—from fellow physics Prof. Subrah
manyan Chandrasekhar, who won hut No
bel three years later.
schools 01 mougni: .vs any nistory major
can tell you, the nuclear age was ushered in
at Chicago in 1942 with the first man-made
nuclear chain reaction. Chicago also devel
oped sociology and political science as
scholarly disciplines Moreover, the uni
versity has spread its influence so widely
that "Chicago schools" of thought now
flourish in several areas of study, including
economics and law "There is an ethos of
excellence here," says University of Chica
go president Hanna Gray. "Our major goal
is to maintain that."
Chicago was one of the first
schools in the country to be con
ceived as a t rue u n iversity. ded i
cated to research and a balance
among graduate, professional
and undergraduatestudies. To
day that balance still holds: de
spite a nationwide decline in
the number of graduate stu
dents, enrollments in the uni
versity's three areas—under
graduated, 100 students), grad
uate (2.700) and professional
(2,700)—remain roughly equal.
Nothing matters more at Chi
cago than the life of the mind.
Significantly, the most intense
campus event is strictly aca
demic; each spring, in order to
land the courses and teachers
they desire, hundreds of stu
dents camp out overnight on
the Sunday before registration.
Heidi Cuesta, a senior in eco
nomics, remembers getting in
line 21 hours ahead of time—
and findin two people ahead
of her Was the wait worth it?
"Yes," she says, "I got the class
I wanted.”
1 ms dedication to academ
ic achievement can sometimes
seem fanatic. Students grum
ble that they pack a semes
ter’s worth of work into each of
their 10-weekquarters. Not sur
prisingly, the combination of
striving students and demand
ing professors often produces
strain Many students say they
have trouble relaxing. "There’s
always this pervasive sense of
guilt—that you should be doing
something,” says Angela An
* Intense about the right
things': Gothic atmosphere
in Hutchinson Commons
(top), camping out to get a
choice class, fraternizing
in the Regenstein Library
STEVE LEONARD
JIM WHKilfT
STEV'K UONARl)