Dear New Faculty and Deans,
Welcome to Illinois Tech—a remarkable place with a remarkable mission. Illinois Tech is 131 years young this year, and over that period of time, it has worked hard to be a place where anyone, no matter their background, skin color, zip code, or ethnicity, could come and receive a world-class education in technology, science, engineering, architecture, design, law, business, and the human sciences. Our track record in this area is enviable, ranking first in Illinois and 30th in the nation in value-added, according to PayScale, Money magazine, and others. In educating first-generation and Pell-eligible students, we rank in the top five percentage-wise for the top 100 universities and for highly selective universities.
Illinois Tech is also a place that highly values innovation, creativity, and inventiveness. Our alumni and faculty have invented the cell phone, magnetic recording media, and one of our recent alumni is among the top five inventors in the world with more than 1,300 patents (at the tender age of 32!). One of our alumni was the person who commercialized and made barcodes ubiquitous. Another of our alumni invented the home router and founded the company Linksys with his wife. The founder of our Institute of Design, Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, brought the creativity of the Bauhaus with him from central Europe and created the New Bauhaus here in Chicago. The founder of our College of Architecture, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, another member of the original Bauhaus in Germany, designed our campus, much of the skyline of Chicago, and invented the world of modern architecture. The founders of our Chicago-Kent College of Law were also committed to innovation and access to education, and from its earliest days in the late 1800s, Chicago-Kent was open to part-time students and women law students—at a time when this was uncommon. Our heritage is one of remarkable innovation and creativity, and one committed to access and inclusion. This is what attracted me to Illinois Tech.
We are entering a very exciting time of growth for our institution. Over the next five years, we plan to grow significantly and lay the foundation for our next 130 years. We plan to modernize not only our curricula but our educational delivery methods and our pedagogies. If you are excited about the future of higher education and its continued evolution in the service of humankind, then Illinois Tech is the place for you. Welcome!