The text of the press release and the accompanying list of signatures appear below, unedited and in full. The release was e-mailed to the Maroon by Professor Bruce Lincoln on the evening of May 20, 2010.
PRESS RELEASE: Further Controversy over the University of Chicago’s Milton Friedman Institute
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Robert Kendrick, Professor of Music (rkendric@uchicago.edu, 773-702-8500) or Bruce Lincoln, Caroline E. Haskell Professor of History of Religions (blincoln@uchicago.edu, 773-702-5083)
The undersigned faculty members consider it a matter of grave concern that the University of Chicago, without any announcement to its own community, has commissioned Ann Beha Architects, a Boston firm, to remake the Chicago Theological Seminary building into a home for the Milton Friedman Institute for Research in Economics (MFIRE) and has renewed aggressive fund-raising activity for the controversial Institute. Neither the Faculty Senate, the University’s highest governing body, nor any other representative group has ever been permitted to vote on establishment of the Friedman Institute, despite wide protest against it. Criticism has centered on the Institute’s strong ideological bias toward free market fundamentalism in the Friedman tradition. In this way and others, its nature runs contrary to the University's tradition of free inquiry and unfettered debate.
Given that no targeted gifts have been announced (unlike other projects like the Logan Arts Center and the Mansueto Library), we can only presume that vital University resources are being devoted to the MFIRE project. Although we have not been informed of its cost, conversion of the Seminary building into a temple of neoliberal economics comes at a time when the University's stinginess towards its own graduate students has dramatically increased student interest in unionization. It also comes as the University pleads that its financial woes permit it to offer only a regressive contract (one that does not even keep pace with health care premiums) to Teamsters Local 743, which represents its staff and clerical workers. We also eagerly await the moment when the University will announce a similar commitment to one of Chicago's most famous institutions, the Seminary Coop Bookstore, now housed in the CTS basement.
We would hate to think that the University's evident fixation on financial assets and its desire to exploit the Friedman brand name for fund-raising purposes would lead it to neglect its most valuable assets, its students, faculty and staff, while committing itself to a project whose very name reinforces a narrow, retrograde, and now demonstrably failed set of social and economic policies. But moves like this suggest that is exactly what is happening.
A petition detailing our objections is now being drafted for circulation and will be presented to President Robert Zimmer and Provost Thomas Rosenbaum in relatively short order.
1. Leora Auslander, Professor of History
2. Ralph A. Austen, Professor Emeritus of African History
3. Michael Bourdaghs, Associate Professor of East Asian Languages & Civilizations
4. Mark Bradley, Professor of History
5. Chad Broughton, Senior Lecturer, Public Policy Studies
6. Bill Brown, Edward Carson Waller Distinguished Service Professor of English
7. Manuela Carneiro da Cunha, Professor Emerita of Anthropology
8. Dipesh Chakrabarty, Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor
History and South Asian Languages & Civilizations
9. Tamara Chin, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature
10. Kyeong-Hee Choi, Associate Professor of East Asian Languages & Civilizations
11. Jennifer Cole, Associate Professor of Comparative Human Development
12. Jean Comaroff, Bernard E. & Ellen C. Sunny Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology
13. John Comaroff, Harold H. Swift Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology and Sociology
14. Bruce Cumings, Gustavus F. and Ann M. Swift Distinguished Service Professor of History
15. Philippe Desan, Howard L. Willett Professor of Romance Languages
16. Michael Dietler, Associate Professor of Anthropology
17. Andrew Dilts, Collegiate Assistant Professor, Social Sciences
18. Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of History of Religions
19. Fred Donner, Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations
20. Darby English, Associate Professor of Art History
21. Jacob Eyferth Assistant Professor Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations
22. James W. Fernandez, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology
23. Norma Field, Robert S. Ingersoll Distinguished Service Professor in Japanese Studies
24. Cornell Fleischer, Kanuni Suleyman Professor of Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies
25. Anton Ford, Assistant Professor of Philosophy
26. Rachel Fulton, Associate Professor of History
27. Susan Gal, Mae and Sidney G. Metzl Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology and Linguistics
28. Michael Geyer, Samuel N. Harper Professor of History
29. McGuire Gibson, Professor in the Oriental Institute
30. W. Clark Gilpin, Margaret E. Burton Distinguished Service Professor of Divinity
31. Andreas Glaeser, Associate Professor of Sociology
32. Jan Goldstein, Norman & Edna Freehling Professor of History
33. Adam Green, Associate Professor of History
34. Tom Gunning, Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor of Art History and Cinema & Media Studies
35. Susan Gzesh, Senior Lecturer and Executive Director, Human Rights Program
36. Elaine Hadley, Associate Professor of English
37. Miriam Hansen, Ferdinand Schevill Distinguished Service Professor of English and Cinema & Media Studies
38. Harry Harootunian, Max Palevsky Professor Emeritus
39. Donald Harper, Professor of East Asian Languages & Civilizations
40. John Hart, Professor of Pathology
41. Elizabeth Helsinger, John Matthews Manley Distinguished Professor of English and Art History
42. Denis Hirschfeldt, Professor of Mathematics
43. Thomas C. Holt, James Westfall Thompson Distinguished Service Professor of History
44. Paola Iovene, Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages & Civilizations
45. Travis Jackson, Associate Professor of Musicology
46. Adrian Johns, Professor of History
47. Janet Johnson, Morton D. Hull Distinguished Service Professor in the Oriental Institute
48. John Kelly, Professor of Anthropology
49. Robert Kendrick, Professor of Music
50. Jim Ketelaar, Professor of History and East Asian Languages & Civilizations
51. Barbara S. Kirschner, Professor of Pediatrics
52. Janice Knight, Associate Professor of English
53. Loren Kruger, Professor of Comparative and English Literatures, African Studies, Theatre and Performance Studies
54. Donald Levine, Peter B. Rizma Professor Emeritus of Sociology
55. Bruce Lincoln, Caroline E. Haskell Professor of History of Religions
56. Agnes Lugo-Ortiz, Associate Professor of Romance Languages
57. Armando Maggi, Professor of Romance Languages
58. Mara Marin, Collegiate Assistant Professor in the Social Sciences
59. Patchen Markell, Associate Professor of Political Science
60. Joseph Masco, Associate Professor of Anthropology
61. John McCormick, Professor of Political Science
62. Bernard McGinn, Naomi Shenstone Donnelly Professor Emeritus of Divinity
63. Françoise Meltzer, Mabel Green Myers Professor of Romance Languages and Comparative Literature
64. Alfredo Cesar Melo, Assistant Professor of Romance Languages
65. Paul Mendes-Flohr, Helen A. Regenstein Professor of Jewish Studies
66. Stuart Michaels, Assistant Director, Center for Gender Studies
67. W.J.T. Mitchell, Gaylord Donnelly Distinguished Service Professor of English and Art History
68. Ian Mueller, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus
69. Janel Mueller, William Rainey Harper Distinguished Service Professor Emerita of English
70. Salikoko S. Mufwene, Frank J. McLoraine Distinguished Service Professor of Linguistics
71. Matam P. Murthy, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics
72. C.M. Naim, Professor Emeritus of South Asian Languages & Civilizations
73. Richard Neer, David B. and Clara E. Stern Professor of Humanities and Art History
74. Deborah Nelson, Associate Professor of English
75. Willemien Otten, Professor of Divinity
76. Stephan Palmié, Associate Professor of Anthropology
77. Virginia Parks, Assistant Professor of Social Service Administration
78. Jennifer Pitts, Associate Professor of Political Science
79. Moishe Postone, Professor of History
80. Molly Przeworski, Professor in the Dept. of Human Genetics & Dept. of Ecology and Evolution
81. Clifton Ragsdale, Associate Professor of Neurobiology
82. François Richard, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
83. Martin Riesebrodt, Professor of Sociology of Religion
84. Melvin G. Rothenberg, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics
85. Lucia B. Rothman-Denes, Professor of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology
86. Lisa Ruddick, Associate Professor of English
87. Marshall Sahlins, Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Anthropology
88. Mario Santana, Associate Professor of Romance Languages
89. Eric Santner, Philip and Ida Romberg Professor in Modern Germanic Studies
90. Julie Saville, Associate Professor of History
91. William Schweiker, Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of Ethics
92. William Sewell, Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Political Science and History
93. Bozena Shallcross, Associate Professor of Slavic Languages & Literatures
94. Holly Shissler, Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations
95. Robin Shoaps, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
96. William Sites, Associate Professor of Social Services Administration.
97. Dan Slater, Assistant Professor of Political Science
98. Amy Dru Stanley, Associate Professor of History
99. Ulrike Stark, Professor of South Asian Languages & Civilizations
100. Howard Stein Professor Emeritus of Philosophy
101. Josef Stern, Professor of Philosophy
102. Russell Tuttle, Professor of Anthropology and Evolutionary Biology
103. Leigh Van Valen, Professor of Ecology and Evolution
104. Lisa Wedeen, Professor of Political Science
105. Rebecca West, William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Service Professor of Romance Languages
106. Alison Winter, Associate Professor of History
107. Ira G. Wool, A.J. Carlson Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
108. Anthony Yu, Carl Darling Buck Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Humanities
109. Tara Zahra, Assistant Professor of History
110. Linda M. G. Zerilli, Charles E. Merriam Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science
111. Rebecca Zorach, Associate Professor of Art History
