At the time Harry came to Chicago, the university and the surrounding community had just passed a low point. During his last years as chancellor, differences between Robert Hutchins and the faculty over the organisation of the undergraduate curriculum and the standards of hiring and promotion at the undergraduate College, where, according to William McNeill (1991, 147), “in some quarters writing scholarly books and articles was taken as a sign that the individual in question had betrayed the College and the ideal of general education,” had led to several departures and a weakening of some departments in the graduate divisions. After Hutchins's departure in 1950, his successor, Lawrence Kimpton, had to restore the university's financial position. This required cutbacks: Those with outside offers were encouraged to depart, as many did to the expanding University of California system, while junior contracts were allowed to expire (McNeill 1991, 166). Only later in the decade did the University begin to repair the damage.

At the same time the physical environment around the university had deteriorated. The immediate neighbourhood was known as Hyde Park.