To help foster the next generation of Chicago’s tech workers, several high-profile and wealthy Chicagoans have donated $150 million to the Illinois Institute of Technology.
The gift, announced Friday, was given by 10 donors, including Craig J. and Janet Duchossois, who own investment company The Duchossois Group, Michael P. and Elizabeth Galvin, who own consulting group Galvin Enterprises, and John W. and Jeanne Rowe. John W. Rowe is the former chairman, president, and CEO of Exelon Corporation, and is chairman emeritus of the Illinois Tech Board of Trustees.
The money, which is the largest cumulative gift Illinois Tech has received, will fund scholarships and new campus facilities, including a residential hall that will be named after the late George Kacek. In 1996, the families of Robert A. Pritzker and Robert W. Galvin, the late father of current Illinois Tech Board of Trustees Chairman Michael P. Galvin., donated $120 million to the college.
Illinois Tech focuses on offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, science, architecture, business, design, human sciences, applied technology and law. The college says the gift will help it in its mission to better train students for tech jobs.
“This landmark combined gift is a profound investment in our continued role as Chicago’s tech university,” said Illinois Tech President Alan W. Cramb in a statement. “This significant commitment will not only fuel Illinois Tech’s central contribution to Chicago’s tech rise, but it will do so by building on our university’s founding mission to provide unmatched opportunity and value to all young people in Chicago.”
In recent years, the college has made strides to grow its computer science and tech offerings with help from some of Chicago's tech entrepreneurs.
In 2015, Cleversafe founder Chris Gladwin donated $7.6 million to Illinois Tech after he sold his company to IBM for $1.3 billion. And just last year, Howard Tullman became the first executive director for the college’s Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship. The innovation hub was the first new academic building built on Illinois Tech’s main campus in more than 40 years, and it is home to a maker space and class rooms.
“For more than 125 years, Illinois Tech has made it possible for all young people—regardless of means—to discover, create, and invent solutions to many of the world’s most pressing challenge,” Michael P. Galvin said in a statement. "This collective investment will ensure that Illinois Tech can continue that legacy while helping build an even brighter economic future for this great city and the world.”
