With First Stop in Mexico City, Dean Ethan Bueno de Mesquita Begins Multi-City Tour, Shares Vision for Harris's Future

Late last month, before an audience of University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy alumni, prospective students, scholars, and business leaders, Dean Ethan Bueno de Mesquita shared reflections from his time as a UChicago student, faculty member, and now dean—and discussed his vision for the future. 

“The mission of the Harris School,” he said, “is to serve society by advancing analysis and evidence-informed public policy through rigorous research, educating serious-minded and effective policy leaders, and engaging on pressing social issues. This is what we're doing, and this is what we’re going to continue to do.”

The November 13th event at the Hyatt Regency Mexico City served as a broad introduction to Dean Bueno de Mesquita, who will cross the US throughout the first half of next year with similar stops planned in Washington DC, New York, Chicago, and the Bay Area.

Before the audience in Mexico City, Bueno de Mesquita detailed his priorities and vision for Harris over the next five years. He stressed the school’s focus on maintaining and expanding its exceptional student experience. 

“As Harris has grown,” said the dean, “the promise we have always kept to our students is that they’ll receive not just an excellent education, but an experience that is the best in its class, from time spent in the classroom to extracurricular and pre-professional opportunities.”

Bueno de Mesquita also spotlighted the Harris School’s substantial rise over the past decade, its place as one of the top three destinations for the study of public policy analysis, and its role as both a values-driven organization and an intellectual agenda-setter—not only at the University of Chicago but across the globe. 

“Since 2014,” said the dean, “Harris’s student body has quadrupled in size to 1,200 professional students, and its faculty has grown by 50%. We went from focusing exclusively on graduate students to running one of the top four largest undergraduate majors on campus. Our footprint in the world and at the University of Chicago has undergone a dramatic transformation.”

Noting Harris’s path-breaking role at the university, Bueno de Mesquita continued, “We are an enormous presence on campus, and we are the agenda-setting institution for a huge range of first-order topics, from international development and tech policy to democracy reform and energy policy. Simply put, the Harris School is a driver for huge swaths of the university’s intellectual conversation.”

In his remarks, the dean highlighted breakthrough research and examples of Harris’ engagement in policy realms such as democratic institutions and effective government, municipal finance and urban infrastructure, energy and climate, economic and political development, public safety and crime, as well as education, health care, and inequality. He also laid out ambitious priorities that include strengthening Harris’ student experience, its commitment to free inquiry and civil discourse, and the potential expansion of its roster of degree programs. 

The audience for the dean’s presentation was studded with distinguished Harris alumni, including Ricardo Andres Estrada Martinez, MPP’07, an economist focused on international development, who said that what stood out most to him were the remarkable strides Harris has made in becoming a truly global policy school. “The internationalization of both the student body and the faculty’s research agenda is genuinely inspiring,” said Estrada. “I’m already looking forward to my next visit to Chicago—hopefully soon—to experience the vibrant atmosphere at Harris and explore the beautiful Keller Center.”

Further strengthening the connections between Harris’ past and future were introductory remarks delivered by Harris alumnus Marco Mena, MPP’94. The 2020 recipient of the Harris Alumni Career Achievement Award and the former governor of the state of Tlaxcala, Mena now directs Mexico’s National Lottery. 

Before concluding the event, Bueno de Mesquita reflected on what he saw as the essential role of a school of public policy, both in academia and the world at large. “A great research university is an incredibly privileged institution where faculty and students are given time and resources to consider truly difficult problems. It is the public policy school’s absolute obligation to make those solutions available to serve society. As a top-notch public policy school, Harris is a key route through which the knowledge the university creates has real impact.”

Laura Sour, MPP’00, PhD’02, agreed and stressed the innovative curriculum as an important differentiator. “Harris has several programs that provide students with exceptional opportunities to engage in hands-on, impactful work – that gets them involved in the policy arena even before they graduate,” she said. “It's clear that Harris is making significant strides in preparing these professionals for diverse career paths and leadership in public policy.”

“Seeing the work of our incredible alumni is really the thing that reminds us why we're doing what we're doing,” said the dean, as he concluded his remarks. “Your impact in Mexico and throughout Latin America and across the world is incredibly affirming. It speaks to why the school exists. We’re incredibly proud of the work you're doing, and grateful for your connection to the Harris School.”