Welcome
Greetings from Illinois Institute of Technology. As 2008 draws to a close, I find myself reflecting on all that I am grateful for this past year, both personally and professionally. The concept of community is one that I naturally associate with this time of year. In my last message, I spoke about IIT's Many Voices, One Vision (MVOV) strategic planning process. As the process encompasses the future of the entire university community, the MVOV steering committee—composed of students, faculty, and staff—has been sharing its thoughts with me on ways that we can build both IIT's core strengths and its visibility as a leader in education and research.
Do you recall the unbridled joy you felt as a child when you played in a sandbox? Members of the IIT community will also consider topics for the IIT "Innovation Sandbox," a kind of incubator for new ideas. In a paper I wrote for the MVOV campaign, "Innovation in a Technology Oriented University: IIT as an Innovative Studio," I invited the IIT community to provide input on how we can build on the university's core areas while cultivating an environment that promotes creativity and innovative thinking. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with individuals who are as enthusiastic as I am about exploring new ideas that will help take IIT to its next level of academic excellence.
As one of the Midwest's top Ph.D.-granting universities, with several nationally ranked programs, IIT is committed to the advancement of the human condition through quality teaching and research. Through our schools of engineering, the sciences and humanities, design, architecture, law, business, and psychology, we are educating students to excel in a complex global society.
One of the ways that we prepare our students is through participation in unique, team-based interprofessional projects that allow them to pursue challenging issues with students from a variety of majors and backgrounds. Our faculty research initiatives also are addressing some of the most complex topics of our time, from energy and sustainability to biomedicine to cancer research. And with our new University Technology Park at IIT, the university is helping to build the South Side of Chicago into a thriving hub for science entrepreneurs.
I encourage you to explore this website to learn more about the people—students, faculty, and staff—that make IIT distinctly unique.
Sincerely,
John L. Anderson began his first full week as the eighth president of IIT with a press conference promoting alternative energy research and development with Congressman Dan Lipinski. Anderson was elected President in May.