President Robert Zimmer is dating a faculty member after separating from his wife and moving out of the President’s house in September. Zimmer’s wife, Terese, is a director at the Urban Education Institute and will continue to live in the president’s house in Zimmer’s absence.
Zimmer notified administrators and trustees about his relationship, University spokesman Steve Kloehn said, to prevent even the appearance of impropriety. “The President has worked with the University leadership to ensure that there are no conflicts of interest. It’s something that all the parties who might be involved in any way have worked out,” Kloehn said.
Board of Trustees President Andrew Alper (A.B. ’80, M.B.A ’81) said the relationship shouldn’t have any bearing on Zimmer’s ability as an administrator. “I see this as a personal matter, not an issue of University governance,” Alper said in a released statement.
Crain’s Chicago Business connected Classics professor Shadi Bartsch with Zimmer in an article Friday. Jonathan Hall, chair of the Classics department, did not respond to questions about Bartsch’s alleged relationship with Zimmer, but said in an e-mail that he was “satisfied that University policy has been complied with.”
Zimmer and Bartsch did not return calls for comment.
Zimmer’s family will continue to live at the President’s house on 59th Street and University Avenue, and pay for any costs “that arise” out of personal funds, Kloehn said. Zimmer and his family are discussing living arrangements, in consultation with the Board of Trustees. Presidential business and University receptions will continue to be held at the house in the interim.
Terese Zimmer is director of Strategic Initiatives at the U of C’s Urban Education Institute, and “there is no reason to believe that will change,” Kloehn said.
According to General Counsel Beth Harris (A.B. ’74), Zimmer and Provost Thomas Rosenbaum have come to an “understanding” about potential conflicts of interest. “The president and the provost have made extra provisions to make sure that the president doesn’t get brought into a situation in which there would be decision-making involved,” Harris said.
She said it is not uncommon for a relationship to develop between faculty members or faculty and their supervisors at a university. However, she stressed that because the president is not the professor’s direct superior, there are few circumstances in which a conflict would arise.
Alper said Zimmer handled the situation professionally. “President Zimmer has been forthcoming with me and the board regarding his family situation. The president has gone out of his way to ensure that there is no conflict of interest, or appearance of a conflict, stemming from his personal life. I am satisfied that his actions are in accord with the policies of the University,” Alper said. “President Zimmer has my full support.”
Really? This is what the maroon has been reduced to (which isn’t saying much), sensationalist journalism? Come on? Quoting a fellow student, “if you can’t do it right, don’t do it at all. Save the school some money!” This is embarrassing.
I saw him and his new girlfriend hooking up in the A-Level at like 2am a couple nights ago.
Um…this is not appropriate at all for a college newspaper. I can’t believe you ran this article.
Yet, if the Maroon did not publish this news, you would equally attack it for failing in its duty to report the news.
What happens in the A-Level stays in the level…
Zimmer,
Can I have the ring on your finger, as shown in that photo, so I can pay for my education?
Crain’s Chicago Business felt it was appropriate to run this sort of article, so why not the Maroon? I am interested in hearing about issues of the University administration that might potentially interfere with the University’s operation. Fortunately, this relationship does not seem to be interfering – and now we know the truth, thanks to the Maroon.
Even though I’m not ya man,
You not my girl,
I’ma call you my Shaaaaadi.
Have the Maroon writers run out of issues to discuss? This article is unnecessarily intended to stir up trouble, which unfortunately for the university, it probably will.
Zimmer’s actions damage the university’s prestige. Official events at the president’s house will now be impossibly awkward, as the main resident no longer lives there. This directly impacts the University community.
Are you people stupid? This is news, big news. Don’t blame the Maroon for reporting, blame the man whose actions warranted reporting.
As an alum I’m extremely interested in this juicy gossip, and very glad the Maroon ran it.
It could have been juicier.
Zimmer gets the Max MAson award for administrative leadership!
I don’t see how a man’s divorce impacts the University. Does this mean the Maroon will now report all and any extramarital affairs, divorces, etc. in the University community?
To summarize this article: Zimmer and his wife are having problems (The commonly reported statistic is that 50% of marriages in the US end in divorce, hardly surprising that a member of the University might fall under that). Zimmer is moving out of the house he shares with his wife (something that many separated couples do). Zimmer is dating someone he met at work (also not that uncommon). On the University’s end, they have stated nothing will change.
If this is what people need to read the Maroon,I pity them. Reading articles summarizing the events of frat parties would be a more constructive use of the paper’s time. This article was better suited to be on Juicy Campus.
I don’t even like Zimmer, but leave the guy alone.
The real tragedy is that the maroon can’t even write a good article about this! Are ALL of the quotes exactly what was in Crain’s or what?
No conflicts of interests? Wasn’t Prof. Bartsch just hired back from Brown University with a significant increase in pay? And wasn’t Zimmer ultimately responsible for that? No conflict I suppose. Just a very interesting confluence of interests.
Maybe they could call it the President’s (ex-)wife’s house.
Can we stop hating for a minute here? Zimmer is a playa. let him do this thang. Shadi is actually pretty fine. Y’all just pissed cause the president’s getting some, and y’all aint.
let the man bang who he wants. You know you’d be all up on that if you were the prez. haters.
My God–he is 25 years older than her. She’s pretty hot–maybe she’s in it for the $$$$$ how much does he make anyway?
I think that Donald has a point there.
BBB– she is NOT hot. It’s pretty despicable when an “intellectual” acts like a character from Satyricon. Oh wait… doesn’t she work on Petronius? Geez…
His poor wife- but this is no tragedy- just a vain middle age classics prof and an old man going through midlife.
Thank you for reporting on this Maroon. President Zimmer, as a visible representative and leader of UChicago, sacrificed some of his privacy when he took the job as President. He is someone we, the UChicago community, should hold to a higher standard and therefore have the right to examine different aspects of his person. In looking into this issue, we ought to focus on how Zimmer’s personal matters may affect the way his colleagues as well as other members of the UChicago community interact with him, particularly considering he is involved with a faculty member and no longer lives in the President’s house even though the house is still used for University functions. I think the fact that he is not living in the President’s house is significant. His vacation of the President’s house suggests that what he is doing is un-Presidential, that his actions do not meet the standards we set for our President, making him unworthy of the house, hence his vacation. I understand that oftentimes in marital separations the wife keeps the house and the husband finds other living arrangements. However, as university functions are still being held at the house, the current arrangement seems odd and even a potential source of tension between UChicago community members attending functions at the President’s house and the President. Alternately, if Zimmer was living in the President’s house, I would think a similar tension might arise between Zimmer and people attending functions at the house, as the people at the functions may feel awkward knowing that Zimmer probably entertains one of their peers in the same house. In conclusion, I worry that Zimmer’s personal actions have great potential of negatively affecting his job, as a large part of the job involves interacting with members of the UChicago community.
This is big news. I believe that an Ethics committee should evaluate this. If the President was involved in recruiting her back with a nice package, this is a conflict of interest and he should step down. If he is truly having an affair, the Committee should decide whether this is similar to a dept chair having an affair with an assist prof or an assist prof with a student. If the allegations are true the Ethics committee should then consider asking him to step down. Sad to think that a role model and figurehead for the university might not have acted as a role model
While I can understand printing a small article about this, it was completely sensationalist and inappropriate to feature it on the front page of the paper, complete with a photo. It was immature and showed a complete lack of judgment on the part of the Maroon editorial board–though I should not have been surprised, given the past articles I have read in this publication over the last three years.
I have come to expect a lack of quality in the writing of the Maroon, but this is a new low.
I just feel bad for the students at this school who actually want to be journalists one day, because our school paper is nothing but a disservice to them.
@Z.I.M.P. — well done, sir. Well done.
Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Mr. President! Happy birthday to you.
Now that the aging math prof is the president, he wants a trophy damsel to prove his success. That is so cliche and so vain. Is this what star academics do in spare time, as we underdogs fight for survival?
eh, let me know if he gets caught with JWOWW.
And, the Maroon SHOULD have a gossip column. I’ll even volunteer to write it if the paper covers the cost of frat party entry – after 10pm!
@Piltdown Man: “If the President was involved in recruiting her back with a nice package….”
I see what you did there.
He notified administrators about his relationship “to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.” Doesn’t anyone even wonder when the relationship began and when he actually revealed it? His separation from his wife in September had no connection with his outside romantic liaisons? Let’s get real here. So how long has he kept the relationship secret from his wife and from university officials? Isn’t the real issue not about a conflict of interest going forward but about honesty and integrity? Do you really want the university to be represented by a president who has been deceptive and whom you can’t really trust?
I guess this gives to meaning to the term “Buttenweiser Professor.”
In the meantime, how many entering freshman, 18 years old, come onto campus each fall? And this the tone of leadership they are greeted with.
In the political sector, this would be perceived like Edwards and Spitzer, or like Stonecipher (at Boeing) and Tiger in the private sector, and dealt with in a much more narrowly defined way.
Rule #1: Don’t shoplift the pooty in your own hood.
YES, and they were ALREADY sleeping together! How is this not outright illegal?
They’d been together for months before his wife caught him in September!
It’s sleezy…
“No conflicts of interests? Wasn’t Prof. Bartsch just hired back from Brown University with a significant increase in pay? And wasn’t Zimmer ultimately responsible for that? No conflict I suppose. Just a very interesting confluence of interests.”
A short follow up.
I was discussing this as a “case” with colleagues and family. This is an especially fascinating issue because it gets at the heart of leadership. While us older alums can clearly see at least part of ourselves in behavior like this (and often had to learn the hard way), this kind of breach of confidence may be especially acute in a university leadership setting.
Imagine, Chicago has several “business units” and each represents a particular moral code, set of expectations or leadership code and all derive some purpose, morale, validation and professional integrity from University leadership:
1. The law school (breach of contract rules; compliance with the “Rules of Professional Conduct” including conflict, which if violated can result in disbarment).
2. The business school (corporate leadership, ethics in business; labor relations; corporate culture; role modeling; mentoring; brand value; marketing and reputation values)
3. The divinity school (spiritual leadership; conformity to certain canon; church law. Cultural continuity; family law [I guess "Shalom Bayit" is not as popular?])
4. The medical school (The Hippocratic Oath)
5. The public policy school (community and civic leadership. Courses include “K-12 education;” “Theories of Justice;” “Labor Management Relations”)
6. The Undergraduate College (A body of effective 18-20 year-old minors, many away from home for the first time, exposed to a critical, delicate period of influence and behavioral coding)
7. And there’s even the Lab School, an elementary school of a hundred children right on the Midway (what more can you say here?)
In the political sector, these personal leadership transgressions result in censorship, forced retirement, lawsuits, even impeachment. e.g. Spitzer, Clinton, Edwards. In the private sector, they almost always lead to immediate leadership removal and contractual alienation (Stonecipher, Woods).
A university community strikes me as perhaps the most demanding of leadership behavior and accountability, the most vulnerable to leadership failure and the least insulated from its costs.
I did not go to Stuyvesant (but have several friends who did). I did not go to U of C and can’t think of any friends who did. I did not go to Brandeis, but I have many friends who did. I have a cousin who went to Brown. I believe that gives me all the background I need for any objective view of the situation. Robert Zimmer was born in 1947. He is not middle aged (unless people are regularly living to 120+ years these days). As for Ms. Shadi, maybe she just needs help with her math homework. Things are tough all over these days.
She SERVED him with DIVORCE papers TONIGHT, IN CLASS!
Named the HO as a defendant!
Good job!
The issue is one of leadership. If one accepts a position of leadership, such as being President of a world-class University then one accepts the responsibility to put the interests of the institution before one’s personal interests. If Zimmer wishes to pursue extramarital affairs, that is his business, but he should at least have the integrity to admit he cares more about himself than about the University and step down from his position. On the other hand, what kind of integrity could you expect from a man who is an adulterer? It is an acute embarrassment and gives the University a black mark to maintain such an individual in a position of leadership.
how many times has shadi been married? watched a clip of her battling for custody of her dog- seems a bit wacky.