Dean Hardscrabble

"Scariness is the true measure of a monster. If you are not scary, what kind of a monster are you?" Dean Hardscrabble (full name Dr. Abigail Hardscrabble) is the tritagonist in Monsters University. She's a dark red dragon-like monster with millipede-like legs and red bat wings, she is the dean of the School of Scaring faculty at Monsters University.

Official Bio
"To Dean Hardscrabble, there are scary monsters and there are all other monsters. It’s no surprise she feels this way—she is, after all, a legendary Scarer and Dean of the School of Scaring at Monsters University. Aspiring Scare students must be up for the challenge to impress her, though she is convinced that her assessment of who is truly scary and who is not is never wrong."

Personality
A legendary Scarer, now retired from the occupation, Dr. Abigail Hardscrabble is the strict and intimidating Dean of the School of Scaring at Monsters University. She keeps a souvenir from her old Scaring career in the form of a Scream-canister, which contains the scream she collected that broke the All-Time Scare Record, making it her most prized possession.

As a legendary Scarer and alumni of Monsters University, Hardscrabble's job, in her own words, is "to make great students, greater, not make mediocre students, less mediocre." In other words, she does not play around in educating her students and expects no less of them.

Her experience and knowledge enables her to easily determine one's potential in Scaring, which she states is how scary a monster is; for her there are monsters who are scary and those who are not. Even so, she still places value on academic knowledge in the study of Scaring. Both of these expectaions she holds for her students led to her relationships with Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan, two students she kicked out of her Program; Mike, whom she deemed to not be scary, Sulley for failing to take Scare studies seriously - She did not care for Mike's hard studying and commendable academic progress nor for Sulley's natural talent and family history of successful scarers.

However, she agreed on a wager with Mike: If his fraternity, Oozma Kappa, won the Scare Games, she would let the whole team into the Scaring Program. But if they lost, Mike would have to leave Monsters University.

She kept a close eye on OK during the games, and the night before the last event, she held to her professional opinion that Mike was not scary despite Sulley's advocation of his friend. She was impressed when OK won, but furious when Sulley admitted he'd cheated, demanding he depart MU campus by tomorrow and calling him a disgrace to MU and to his family name. However, she was horrified to learn Mike, and later Sulley, had entered the human world but shocked when they managed to repower the door from the otherside to get back.

While the two were still expelled from Monsters University, Hardscrabble saw them off, admitting they'd done something nobody else had, they surprised her, and encouraged them, particularly Mike, to keep "surprising", and indirectly gave them the means of working at a scare company, as well as allowing OK into the Scaring Program despite Sulley's cheating, and wishing the duo good luck.

The Dean Hardscrabble is a monster who is determined to teach her students and help them to be all they can be, but has a caring and benign side that she rarely shows. She cares for the well-beings of all MU students, and is humble enough to admit when she's wrong.

Monsters University
Dean Hardscrabble is first seen flying into Professor Knight's classroom, darkening the lecture hall by closing all the curtains in one fell swoop. At Knight's suggestion, Hardscrabble then gives the students a "few words of inspiration" (including Mike Wazowski), stating her standards about scary monsters and that at the end of the semester there would be a final exam - Failure would mean getting kicked out of the Scaring Program. She then tells them she hopes they are all "properly inspired", before taking her leave with a frightful flap of her wings. Because of this, after Hardscrabble sees Mike and Sulley get into an argument ending with both monsters accidentally breaking the dean's prized scream canister, Hardscrabble tests them both on the spot - She fails Mike, disregarding his hard studying and commendable academic progress, and fails Sulley when he jumps the gun with a roar, dismissing the need to study and rely on his talent. Hardscrabble explains the importance of the study and, along for his lack of progress, fails him, not caring for his family history of successful scarers. While Sulley leaves in a fury, Hardscrabble tells Mike that what he lacks is something that cannot be taught: He's not scary. Mike begs for a chance in the simulator, saying he'll surprise her, but Hardscrabble dissmisses this, doubting that very much.

However, she does not hear the last of them when, as she helps to announce the Scare Games, Mike approaches her with a wager: If he and his fraternity, Oozma Kappa, win the games she will allow the whole team into the Scaring Program; but if they lose, Mike will leave Monsters University. Mike agrees but when she points out he needs enough members to qualify, Sulley smugly gets onto the team, Mike having no choice when no one else will join. She then smugly wishes them good luck.

During the Scare Games, Dean Hardscrabble is secretly watching Mike and Sulley competing from afar, aware that they are both going to fail. The night before the last event, Sulley approaches her, hoping that, if they win, there'll be no hard feelings. Hardscrabble then reminds him in the last event, the Scare-Simulator, each member of OK must prove, in front of the entire school, that each of them are undeniably scary. And she tells him, in her professional opinion, that one of them is not. Sulley tries to advocate Mike's name but Hardscrabble demandingly asks if Sulley, himself, thinks that Mike is scary, but he has no reply.

But after OK wins the Games when they beat Roar Omega Roar in the final round with the scare simulators, Sulley tells Hardscrabble that he cheated by setting Mike's simulator level to easy just to make OK win since to him it's a no-win situation for them otherwise due to Mike's inability to scare, the dean orders him to leave the campus by tomorrow, calling him a disgrace to MU and to his family name, when all of a sudden she is alerted that Mike had secretly snuck into the door lab, prompting Sulley to go there to save his friend. Hardscrabble then shuts down the door in question, which led to a cabin at a campsite until the authorities arrive, but Mike and Sulley manage to escape back by scaring several human adults in the form of a team of police officers.

Hardscrabble then reluctantly has both Mike and Sulley expelled from Monsters University permanently, but was sad to let them go because their actions, while considered as a major offense to her school, ended up surprising her. Hardscrabble ultimately gives in and decides to give the two monsters a second chance at life by having them both work at Monsters, Inc., much to their delight.

Character Development and Design
The Dean was originally to be a male character, whose design was based on an alligator. However, late in the production, a few weeks before starting animation, Dan Scanlon decided the character had to be a female. Character Art Director Jason Deamer says Scanlon likes "to play things again type" and believes that was the trigger of the change, as "a male antagonist Dean is an accepted thing in the college movie genre, so the idea was that it would be more interesting to make her a female; it’s something new". Story Supervisor Kelsey Mann says about Hardscarbble male version that "he just came in and did a lot of yelling and screaming and it didn’t really intimidate you. [With Hardscrabble's final version] It’s a kind of quiet reserved judgement that really sends the chills up your spine".

The artists first tried to make minor changes to the male design they had to feminize it, but found it wasn't sufficient, and started over from scratch. A team of character designers, comprising artists that worked on the original Monsters, Inc., was gathered. They went through many designs, trying basing her on a crab, scorpion, snake, moth, bat and owl. The biggest problem came from that her appearance had to reflect she is both the dean of the school and a legendary Scarer, two ideas that they found were not necessarily compatible. As Deamer explains, "Some designs worked as the Dean of a school but maybe not as the best Scarer ever, and then others works as the most amazing Scarer but not convincing as a Dean, and it wasn’t until we came across this giant centipede that it happened."

They finally settled on a type of centipede called Scolopendra Gigantea, also known as the Amazonian giant centipede, that combined the creepiness, authority and elegance they wanted Hardscrabble to have. One was brought to Pixar for reference, and was called Kendra the Scolopendra by the MU crew. An expert was also dispatched to manipulate the beast. Hardscrabble's head takes from the crowns of horned lizards, and her wings are based on those of bats and designed to blend into her jacket when folded.

Trivia

 * Dean Hardscrabble’s character was modeled after a type of centipede called Scolopendra Gigantea, also known as the Amazonian giant centipede.
 * According to story supervisor Kelsey Mann, the dean was originally to be a male, who would scream and shout a lot. However, the team wanted to make the dean a scary figure, and found he wasn't really intimidating in this form.
 * In some ways, Hardscrabble appears to be the complete opposite of Waternoose: while Waternoose appears friendly and kind-natured but is actually cruel and ruthless, and is therefore an antagonist of the original film; in contrast, Hardscrabble appears stern and unpleasant, but is actually kind and helpful, and therefore is an ally to Mike and Sulley.
 * Hardscrabble also parrallels Waternoose in a moment during their respective movies when they both tell "Sullivan! Don't go in that room/door!"
 * Dean Hardscrabble used to be a sorority sister of HSS
 * As a student, she founded the Scare Games and won them four years in a row.
 * Her real name is Dr. Abigail Hardscrabble.
 * She is voiced by Helen Mirren who did Nyra who was the secondary antagonist of Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole.
 * At the start, she is often mistaken as the secondary or main antagonist, even though she's not close to being evil.
 * Dean Hardscrabble's job is to make great students greater.
 * She is (possibly) indirectly mentioned as the record-holder of the All-Time Scare-Record ever in Monsters Inc., since James P. Sullivan was now close to surpass it. Since Sulley and Mike revolutionized MI by harvesting laughter instead of screams, this would mean Hardscrabble is the last holder of the Scare-Record.