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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2017
As bastions of tradition and instigators of change, universities periodically confront the tension embedded in those two antagonistic roles. The latent conflict between tradition and change often becomes manifest when new leadership is chosen. Presidential selection can be an occasion for defining the purposes of an institution; consequently, struggles over these appointments take on prophetic significance. The appointment of Robert Maynard Hutchins as the fifth president of the University of Chicago in 1929 was such an occasion. During his twenty-two-year tenure at Chicago Hutchins became a leading voice of educational reform and made his college the focus of national interest. The legacy of the Hutchins years is much disputed, but that is another story. This article will instead describe how a thirty-year-old easterner came to a prominent leadership post in the Midwest.
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