On Nov. 7, Ethan Bueno de Mesquita, dean of the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, replaced Susan Groesbeck as interim director of the Laboratory Schools. He also chaired the university’s committee to review Lab and is the parent of a U-High student. In an interview with the U-High Midway, Dr. Bueno de Mesquita explained his goals for Lab, his background in education leadership and the effect he hopes to have on the lives of students. Dr. Bueno de Mesquita’s responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length. 

What drew you to education leadership in the first place?

I’ve spent most of my career as a professor. I’ve been either dean or interim dean now for almost three years and on the faculty of the Harris School for 18 years — I was deputy dean at the school for a decade. I’m kind of drawn to teaching, and I like scholarship, but I’m also drawn generally to helping institutions think about how to achieve their goals. I like that aspect of it. I care a lot about research and teaching institutions, and I like thinking about how to design ourselves in ways to achieve our goals more effectively. 

What would you say, generally, are your main goals for our schools during your time as Interim Director?

I am not a professional N-12 educator, and I’m acutely aware of that. So, on lots of dimensions, I’m leaning very heavily on the terrific professionals at Lab already. The thing that I feel I bring to the table is a lot of experience with the university. I know the university really well. I’ve been in leadership at the university, and I’ve been working at the university for a very long time. And so, having a great secondary school on the campus of a great research university is a pretty unique thing, and it’s magical in lots of ways. I think somebody sitting in my seat, who has ties as deep to the university as I do, can help to build more bridges and create more opportunities for the university and Lab to be in a mutually enriching partnership for students, for Lab and university faculty, and for Lab and university leadership.

This has been a moment of intense transition for us for a while now. How do you plan to help the community — especially the students — adjust during this period? 

We should acknowledge that it’s a lot, and was not anybody’s goal. It is my hope and my sense for students that in the short run, leadership shouldn’t matter that much. On a day-to-day basis, the most important professionals at the Lab Schools for students should be the teachers, who are stable professionals and great at their jobs and the people whom students are interacting with and learning with. Lots of things that happen at a policy or an operational level at a school matter for the long run and for some of the opportunities that are available. But if they’re moving around day-to-day instruction, teaching, and learning, they’re not being done well.

How do you plan to manage being dean of the Harris School with being interim director of Lab?

I mean, they are both obviously full-time jobs, and I’m one person. So there is some juggling involved. And when you are a dean, you are still a professor, and professors do research and write papers in addition to my decanal duties at the Harris School. I have an active research agenda — but this year, that is going to go on the back burner so that I can do this job. I think that’s the sort of main professional trade-off that I’m going to make in order to be able to put the time into this job that it deserves.

Many students have felt lately that their voices haven’t been heard or valued in terms of many executive decisions made by those in power at Lab. How do you plan to change that concretely and rebuild the trust and communication that we’ve been missing? 

I am new to this part of education. The world of education that I have always worked in is college and graduate school, and all of my students are adults. I genuinely don’t know the answer to what schools are supposed to do with regard to those kinds of policy questions, but I’m happy to learn about it. And so I’ll say two things. One is, I’ll reiterate, I don’t know what I’m talking about, and I need to learn more. But the other is, my natural inclination is to communicate extremely transparently with people. I do not like secrets. I do not like when people feel scared to say what they think. I think that people should speak plainly to one another. And that is always my inclination. 

I think it is especially important for people in leadership to speak plainly, because if people in leadership are viewed as not speaking plainly, they become ineffective. If people don’t think you’re communicating in a straightforward manner with them, if they don’t think that you are telling them the truth, or if they think that you are afraid to tell them what you think, everything is lost. You can’t get anywhere. So, my natural inclinations are to communicate transparently and plainly.