Last week, The Maroon published a series on University governance.

The series opened with a letter signed by more than 100 professors expressing concern with the recent announcement that the University will dramatically shrink the size of Ph.D. programs. More generally, professors describe a feeling that there has been an erosion of distributed governance at UChicago, in favor of a more “top-down” model in which power is consolidated in the central administration.

By examining minutes of the faculty senate leaked to The Maroon, and through interviews with faculty and students, we have attempted to investigate these concerns—to look at why some professors feel that the University’s public advocacy of free speech and democratic governance is not lived out in the management style of administrators.

We plan to publish articles from the series in a print issue this week, and we invite you to respond via Letters to the Editor. We’d like to hear your thoughts and, especially, your critiques of our coverage—tell us how we got it wrong, or what we missed. We invite responses from students, professors, staff, community members and others with ties to the University.

Responses should be fewer than 500 words, should include your name, your relationship with the University (e.g. “alumnus, graduation year” or “Hyde Park resident”) and can be sent by email to viewpoints@chicagomaroon.com.