In his second term, Barack Obama has begun contemplating his legacy and thus his presidential library. At the moment, the leading site contender is the University of Chicago, not only the birthplace of Milton Friedman-inspired economic deregulation, the “fantasies of the Chicago Boys,” but also the Obamas’ Hyde Park neighbor and former employer.

Less well known, however, is that UChicago also serves as a window into the fully corporatized future of education, where an unquestioned goal is profit for top staff and the checks-and-balances of the trustee system do not function.

In this future, outsize compensation is hidden by a PR machine, funded by growing tuition and debt, and allocated despite questionable job performance. Simultaneously, non-profitable but mission-focused endeavors are sidelined and contracts are given to the institution’s claimed guardians.