The last time I checked in with Shimer College, late last year, the tiny, fiercely independent Great Books school was embroiled in a battle over what some saw as a right-wing attempt to take over its board and administration. That battle is still raging, with a couple new developments: a “first step” toward creating a politically conservative college within the Shimer shell and the revelation of a financial nexus that appears to be funding controversial changes.
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Enright wrote, “When I conceived this ambitious project five years ago, skeptics—even close friends—insisted that the notion of starting a new college from scratch was crazy or impossible. . . . Now, despite the naysayers, we’re well on our way.
“We will offer selections from the College of the United States curriculum to students of Shimer and [the Illinois Institute of Technology]. Then we’ll proceed toward our goal of establishing the College of the United States as a full-time, accredited institution of higher learning.”
Shimer moved from Waukegan to IIT’s south-side campus in 2006 with the help of a big pledge from an anonymous donor. The school didn’t report a gift from the Seid Foundation, Merchán says, but did report an anonymous contribution of $750,000 in 2007. Although Merchán can’t account for the extra $100,000 (he says it could’ve come from the same source through a third-party organization like the Donors Trust), the single large donation got him thinking that Seid, a local businessman and philanthropist, might be Shimer’s mystery benefactor.
After another five people with no previous connection to Shimer were added to the board last fall, some longer-term board members pulled together an all-alumni slate of candidates to fill the remaining available spots. (The board now has an official limit of 40.) But this slate was tabled by the nominating committee, which Merchán says is dominated by allies of the president. Merchán maintains it’s the only time in recent Shimer history that a group of qualified nominees has been blocked.
