Chicago Daily Observer

President William Craig Rice engineered Shimer College’s controversial move to the IIT campus, but he’s not hanging around to see how it works out.

Surprising things happen when you travel abroad. You see how small the world truly is, you meet delightful people and interesting people; and, sometimes something you hear haunts you. Such was the case on an international flight I took.

On a plane, returning from London, I looked back from my seat and saw there were empty middle isles where I could push up the arm rests, grab some pillows and blankets and lie down for a nap. As I was readying the seats, a 30ish middle eastern man came up to me.

“Excuse me,” he said, “Are you a Muslim?”

“No, and no one has ever asked me that. Why are you asking?”

“Well, I noticed that you were offered champagne and wine and turned it all down and I wondered if you were Muslim.”

“No, and I’m Irish!” I added with a laugh.

He sat down in a seat ... Read More...

Saying goodbye to my oldest daughter was harder than I expected.

Like many families in the Chicago area – last week we loaded up our car and headed off to college. For us, it was a trip to Baltimore where our daughter is an incoming freshman at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

As we arrived in Baltimore, my daughter was animated as she talked about the possibilities to learn and grow as an artist. After we toured the area, my daughter asked me to bless her choice of schools. My wife – who also was educated as an artist—shared my daughter’s enthusiasm.

Instead of a blessing, my first words were I feared for her safety living at an urban campus – an oasis surrounded by poverty and homeless street people. In the past, my daughter had nicknamed me Debbie Downer – the Saturday Night Live character who sees the ... Read More...