Dear Commons Colleagues,

The current issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education has a front-page article on the “Reinvention” of the City Colleges of Chicago.  The Reinvention is the initiative of the new Chancellor, Cheryl Hyman, who although a graduate of the City Colleges, never held a university position prior to her appointment by Mayor Richard Daley last year.   The full Reinvention report will be released in May but already there have been indications of large-scale changes in the administration and operation of the seven colleges in the system.  Even before the final report, Chancellor Hyman has eliminated over 200 “redundant” full-time positions, has asked all of the sitting presidents to reapply for their positions, and replaced the individual college graduations with one university-wide ceremony.   The major rationale for the Reinvention is the system, as  a whole, has a seven percent graduation rate.   Faculty and others have criticized the Reinvention as a “corporatization” of their colleges.

Tony