Support from alumni, trustees, foundations, and corporations—including a landmark $25 million commitment from Janet and Craig Duchossois—backs a new three-college academic model built for the economy students will enter

Illinois Tech Futures

Students work in the Idea Shop, Illinois Tech's state-of-the-art, rapid-prototyping lab. Illinois Tech is launching a new three-college academic model built around the technologies, industries, and careers shaping the future.

CHICAGO, IL, Sept. 10, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech) today announced $76 million in recent philanthropic commitments to invest in students and advance the university’s student-first academic transformation. Led by a landmark $25 million commitment from University Regent Craig Duchossois and his wife, Janet, the collective support from alumni, trustees, foundations, and corporations strengthens scholarships, experiential learning, cutting-edge research, and industry-connected programs as Illinois Tech launches a new three-college academic model built around the technologies, industries, and careers shaping the future.

More Than $76 Million Committed to Students and Illinois Tech’s Academic Transformation

Recent philanthropic commitments totaling $76 million reflect broad support from alumni, trustees, foundations, and corporations for the university’s students and long-term strategic direction. Among them are eight-figure gifts from Board of Trustees Chair Michael P. Galvin (LAW ’78) and an anonymous donor, and seven-figure gifts from Trustee Dan Ephraim (M.B.A. ’76), Bob (B.E. ’70) and Nancy Hoel, University Regent Ellen Jordan (PSYC ’79, M.B.A. ’81), and The Grainger Foundation, alongside the $25 million commitment from Craig and Janet Duchossois.

Part of this investment also includes a significant donation of industry-leading software, hardware, training, and technical support from Trimble, a longstanding corporate partner of Illinois Tech, for an array of the university’s engineering programs. These resources will sustain and expand the Trimble Technology Lab, providing students and faculty with access to cutting-edge technologies used throughout the construction and engineering industries; support classroom instruction, research, and experiential learning; and provide students with the skills and tools required to design, develop, and construct today’s built environment.

Collectively, this philanthropy strengthens the priorities at the center of Illinois Tech’s academic transformation: expanding student access, advancing academic excellence, accelerating innovation, and connecting learning more directly to the technologies and industries shaping the future. The commitments support scholarships, experiential learning and training, cutting-edge research, and industry-connected programs that prepare students for careers in a fast-changing, technology-driven world.

“Illinois Tech has been at the forefront of tech innovation since our founding, and this level of support underscores confidence in the strategic vision for our future,” says Sean Campbell, vice president for advancement. “Our donors are true partners in this work, enabling the university to deliver the kind of education today’s students and employers need.”

For Craig Duchossois, whose career has included leading and investing in businesses during profound technological and economic change, the university’s transformation reflects the importance of anticipating where the world is going, rather than waiting for change to dictate what comes next.

“In business, you learn that the organizations that endure are the ones willing to look ahead, recognize where the world is heading, and invest for the long term,” says Craig Duchossois. “Janet and I believe Illinois Tech is doing exactly that.

“Technology does not develop in isolation, industries do not operate in isolation, and the opportunities these students will encounter will not fit neatly inside traditional boundaries. Illinois Tech is developing in its students the capabilities they’ll need to solve real problems, create new possibilities, and lead through change. We are proud to invest in their future and in a university willing to build for that future now.”

The gift from the Duchossois family—known for their deep ties to Chicago—builds on nearly 40 years of generous support for the university and reinforces Illinois Tech’s bold strategy for long-term success. As a University Regent and member of Illinois Tech’s Board of Trustees since 1992, Duchossois has been a driving force behind the university’s growth. His impact is seen through transformative philanthropy—including an eight-figure contribution to the university’s largest combined gift ($150 million) for expanding scholarships and campus facilities; the launch of the Duchossois Leadership Scholars Program, which brings together talented students from different academic fields and combines rigorous study with mentorship, internships, service, leadership development, and opportunities to work across disciplines; and the establishment of the Janet & Craig Duchossois Idea Shop, which gives students access to tools and space to prototype, experiment, build, and translate ideas into tangible solutions.

A Student-First Academic Transformation

Since its founding, Illinois Tech has pursued a distinctive mission: to expand access to opportunity through technology-focused education that prepares students for a rapidly changing world. The university has earned national recognition for economic mobility and career success by connecting rigorous education closely to the needs of students and the economy. Its new academic model carries that legacy forward—putting students at the center and ensuring that an Illinois Tech education continues to deliver exceptional value as technology reshapes careers and creates new opportunities.

Launching for the 2026–27 academic year, the new structure organizes Illinois Tech’s academic enterprise into three interdisciplinary colleges: Tech Futures, including the School of Computing and the School of Engineering, Applied Science, and Health; Design Futures, including the School of Architecture and the School of Design and Society; and Professional Futures, including Stuart School of Business and Chicago-Kent College of Law.

The model is designed to preserve deep disciplinary expertise while making it easier for students and faculty to work across fields that increasingly converge in practice—connecting computing and engineering with science, health, architecture, design, business, law, the humanities, and other areas that together shape technological innovation and its impact on society.

Rather than organizing education solely around boundaries inherited from an earlier economy, Illinois Tech is building an academic structure around how students will increasingly work and solve problems: through combinations of technical depth, creativity, human judgment, professional expertise, adaptability, and real-world experience.

“At Illinois Tech, our promise to students has always been to prepare them not just for a first job, but for a lifetime of innovation and career success,” says Raj Echambadi, president of Illinois Tech. “Technology is transforming every profession, and the most important challenges will rarely belong to one discipline alone. This academic transformation will help students develop deep expertise while giving them the tools and experiences needed to connect critical ideas, work across boundaries, exercise judgment, and turn knowledge into results.

The three-college structure is also intended to create a platform for the next phase of Illinois Tech’s academic transformation. Among the concepts now in development are potential three-year degree pathways, new ways for talented students to enter and succeed in STEM, access-focused programs aimed at expanding opportunity, and interdisciplinary academic programs and research hubs organized around complex problems that increasingly require expertise from multiple fields.

Craig and Janet are visionary supporters of higher education whose belief in Illinois Tech—and, most importantly, in our students—has been steadfast for decades. Their extraordinary commitment to Illinois Tech’s future is profoundly inspiring. It is an affirmation of our mission for the twenty-first century and in the extraordinary potential of the students who will shape this new era.”

Built Around the World Students Will Enter

The transformation responds to a fundamental change in the environment graduates are entering. Artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies are reshaping not only computing and engineering, but also health, architecture, design, manufacturing, infrastructure, finance, business, law, and nearly every other profession.

Students still need rigorous disciplinary foundations. But increasingly, innovation happens where those disciplines meet.

Food systems depend on science, sensors, data, logistics, regulation, business, and public trust. Health technology requires biology, engineering, computing, design, ethics, and care. The future of cities depends on architects, engineers, designers, scientists, lawyers, business leaders, and communities. AI systems must not only be built; they must also be secured, financed, governed, commercialized, understood, and used responsibly.

Tech Futures brings together computing, engineering, applied science, health, mathematics, information technology, food science, and related fields—creating a stronger platform for education and research in areas including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data science, health technology, critical infrastructure, energy, food systems, robotics, advanced manufacturing, and emerging technologies.

Design Futures connects architecture, design, humanities, social sciences, and language education—building on Illinois Tech’s Bauhaus and Mies van der Rohe legacy while advancing human-centered approaches to technology, cities, climate adaptation, digital media, urban systems, culture, communication, and civic life.

Professional Futures brings together business, industrial technology and management, and law—recognizing that technology’s future will be determined not only by those who build and design it, but also by those who lead, finance, regulate, govern, commercialize, advocate, and earn public trust around it.

“This is fundamentally a student-first academic redesign,” says Elizabeth Hudson, provost, chief academic officer, and senior vice president for academic affairs. “We want students to have strong academic homes and extraordinary depth in their chosen fields while gaining more opportunities to work with people whose expertise and perspectives are different from their own.

“The three-college model gives us a stronger platform for interdisciplinary research, shared projects, new academic pathways, industry partnerships, and experiential learning. It allows us to organize less around the constraints of an organizational chart and more around the lives, careers, and problems our students are preparing to take on.”

Students and families are increasingly asking universities to demonstrate the relevance, value, and career impact of a degree. At the same time, higher education is navigating demographic change, volatility in international enrollment, pressure on research funding, rapidly changing technologies, and growing expectations around affordability and workforce preparation.

Illinois Tech’s response is rooted in a proposition that has defined the university since its founding: technological change should expand opportunity, and education should equip people to shape that change.

Illinois Tech enters this next chapter with a record of student outcomes that ranks among the strongest in Illinois and the nation. The Carnegie Foundation has designated Illinois Tech as an “Opportunity College and University,” its highest classification, recognizing institutions that provide both broad access and strong earnings outcomes for graduates. In 2026, the Wall Street Journal and College Pulse ranked Illinois Tech #1 in Illinois and #22 nationally for Best Salaries of Graduates, while U.S. News & World Report ranked the university #30 nationally among Best Value Schools.

“Our responsibility as trustees is to strengthen what makes Illinois Tech distinctively differentiated, while ensuring that the university continues to evolve with the world our students are entering,” says Michael P. Galvin (LAW ’78), chair of the Illinois Tech Board of Trustees. “Craig and Janet—and the many alumni, trustees, and friends investing in Illinois Tech—bring deep experience leading businesses, institutions, and communities through technological and economic change. Their support is a powerful endorsement of both Illinois Tech’s enduring strengths and the direction we are taking: preserving rigor, access, and hands-on learning, while building the university that students and employers need now and in the future.”

Connecting Academic Depth with Real-World Experience

The new structure is intended to make collaboration routine for students and faculty. It creates a stronger platform for joint faculty appointments, interdisciplinary research, modular academic pathways, shared projects, and industry and community partnerships that cross college lines.

It also builds on Illinois Tech’s longstanding commitment to experiential learning.

Through the university’s Elevate initiative, students are provided with significant hands-on experiences including internships, research, entrepreneurship, study away, and real-world projects. Illinois Tech’s academic transformation is designed to make it easier for those experiences to cross disciplinary boundaries and to connect students with Chicago’s technology, business, legal, design, health, manufacturing, infrastructure, food, and civic ecosystems.

Existing Illinois Tech programs already demonstrate what this kind of education can look like. The university’s microgrid supports student and faculty work in energy resilience and advanced grid technology. The Institute for Food Safety and Health connects university researchers with federal and industry partners. The Pritzker Institute of Biomedical Science and Engineering advances biomedical innovation. The Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship and the Idea Shop give students environments where design, technology, entrepreneurship, making, and collaborative problem-solving come together.

Illinois Tech’s academic transformation continues more than a century-long tradition of adapting education to technological, economic, and social change. From Armour Institute and the New Bauhaus to today’s interdisciplinary, technology-driven model, Illinois Tech’s purpose was not simply to teach technology. It was to help people understand, apply, and shape technological change.

The future has always been the focus. Illinois Tech is changing shape to meet it again.

Illinois Institute of Technology

Based in the global metropolis of Chicago, Illinois Tech was founded to advance technology and innovation for all. It is the only tech-focused university in the city, and it stands at the crossroads of exploration and invention, advancing the future of Chicago and the world. It offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, computing, architecture, business, design, science and human sciences, and law. Illinois Tech students have significant access to hands-on experiences, personalized mentorship, and job readiness through the university's one-of-a-kind Elevate program. Its graduates lead the state and much of the nation in economic prosperity. Its faculty and alumni built the Chicago skyline. And every day in the city's living lab, Illinois Tech fuels breakthroughs that change lives. Visit iit.edu.

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Illinois Tech Futures

CONTACT: Petra Kelly
Illinois Institute of Technology
press@illinoistech.edu

Illinois Tech Announces $76 Million in Philanthropic Commitments to Advance Student Success and Academic Transformation