Message from the President

I am pleased to share the University of Chicago’s 2019 annual report, which outlines our achievements, milestones, and the progress we have made in selected areas over the past year, as well as the philanthropic support that makes such achievements possible. The report also provides an update on the status of our endowment and our financial results for the 2019 fiscal year.

The University of Chicago is home to an intellectual community with a distinctive history, built on the foundations of open discourse, rigorous inquiry, evidence-based analysis, and engagement with a diversity of perspectives. Our environment of constant intellectual challenge has supported free and open inquiry and investigation by generations of faculty, students, staff, and visitors, and has helped shape scholarly fields and defined schools of thought across the full scope of our work.

The University has a long-term impact on society through the ideas of our faculty, the work of our students turned alumni, the engagement of our staff, and programs of direct impact, both here in the United States, and through our broad array of international programs and partnerships, including our global centers in Delhi, Beijing, Hong Kong, London, and Paris. Our work, which spans and engages multiple disciplines, can be brought to bear directly on some of the most complex societal challenges in the world today.

This distinctive environment and its resulting capacity for impact are renewed each day by those on campus, and by those who support these efforts.

I would like to acknowledge the commitment and dedication of our faculty, students, staff, alumni, parents, and friends as we continue into the new year. Thank you for your ongoing contributions, support, and accomplishments.

Robert J. Zimmer
President