Illinois Institute of Technology


Coordinates: 41°50′4.75″N 87°37′42″W / 41.8346528°N 87.62833°W / 41.8346528; -87.62833

Illinois Institute of Technology
Motto: Transforming Lives. Inventing the Future.
Established: 1940
Type: Private, Space-grant
Endowment: $338.1 million[1]
President: John L. Anderson[2]
Faculty: 659[3]
Undergraduates: 2,576[1]
Postgraduates: 4,833[3]
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Campus: Urban, 120 acres (490,000 m2)[3]
Colors: IIT Scarlet      and IIT Gray     [4]
Nickname: Scarlet Hawks
Athletics: 10 varsity teams
Website: www.iit.edu

Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), commonly called Illinois Tech, is a private Ph.D.-granting university located in Chicago, Illinois, with programs in engineering, science, psychology, architecture, business, communications, industrial technology, information technology, design, and law. It is a member of the Association of Independent Technological Universities, a group that includes Caltech, Carnegie-Mellon, MIT, and RPI. It was formed in 1940 by the merger of Armour Institute of Technology (founded in 1893) and Lewis Institute (founded in 1895).

Contents

History

Armour Institute of Technology

Main building of Armour Tech on right ca. 1914

The Armour Institute of Technology, a predecessor to IIT, was founded in 1893 with a gift from Philip Danforth Armour, Sr., a prominent Chicago meat packer and grain merchant.[5] Armour had heard Chicago minister Frank W. Gunsaulus say that with a million dollars he would build a school that would be open to students of all backgrounds instead of just the elite. After the sermon, Armour approached Gunsaulus and asked if he was serious about his claim. When Gunsaulus said yes, Armour told him that if he came by his office in the morning, he would give him the million dollars. Armour also stipulated that Gunsaulus become the first president of the school, and Gunsaulus served as president of Armour Tech from its founding in 1893 until his death in 1921. Gunsaulus's sermon thus became known as the "Million Dollar Sermon".[5]

Centered at 33rd Street and Armour Avenue (now Federal Street), Armour Institute of Technology shared the neighborhood now known as Bronzeville with many historic places: Comiskey Park was a few blocks away, west of what is now the Dan Ryan Expressway; the land used to expand the campus in the 1940s through 1970s was home to many of Chicago's old famous jazz and blues clubs, with performers like Louis Armstrong highlighting the neighborhood; and, as evidenced by the affluent church where Gunsaulus ministered and the Armour family attended, some of Chicago's most influential members frequented the area.

Lewis Institute

Lewis Institute ca. 1903

Founded in 1895 from the estate of the eponymous Chicago real estate investor Allen Cleveland Lewis, Lewis Institute stood where the United Center now stands.[6] Allen Lewis was one of many investors to descend on Chicago after the 1871 Great Chicago Fire, and helped to rebuild the city's west side. Under its first director, George Noble Carman, Lewis Institute was the first institution to offer adult education programs, making it the first junior college in the United States.[7] The Institute offered courses in engineering, sciences, and technology, but also featured courses in home economics and other domestic arts. Lewis Institute offered a unique program in which a young child borrowed from a member of the community who would be cared for by students for up to a year. Many faculty became well-known for their contributions to education and society, including the first President, Carman, who helped create North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, the first educational accreditation board,[7] and Ethel Percy Andrus, California's first female high school principal and founder of both the National Retired Teachers Association and the American Association of Retired Persons, which later merged into what is now AARP.[8][9]

Lewis/Armour Merger

Despite success on many fronts for both Armour Institute and Lewis Institute, the Great Depression and changing educational times left each looking for ways to expand programs and relieve debt. In the late 1930s, the Board of Trustees at Armour was greatly expanded, with many Chicago industrialists and businessmen joining the board to increase funding and support the institute's growing reputation. However, it was a proposal from Lewis's chairman Alex Bailey to Armour President Henry Townley Heald and Board Chair James Cunningham that would lead to the birth of IIT. While Armour's faculty and trustees supported the merger, some Lewis faculty and alumni opposed it, feeling that Lewis's legacy would be forgotten in the new school. Armour's campus became the permanent home of the new school while Lewis's campus was briefly repurposed by the City of Chicago as a civic building before being demolished for the construction of the United Center. The resistance by Lewis supporters led to a court battle in which the original will of Allen C. Lewis was dissolved. The Lewis Institute and Armour Institute completed the merger in 1940, with the first academic year for the new Illinois Institute of Technology beginning in the fall of the same year.

Growth and expansion

IIT continued to expand after the merger. As one of the first American universities to host a Navy V-12 program during World War II, the school saw a large increase in students and expanded the Armour campus beyond its original seven acres. Two years before the merger, German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe joined the then Armour Institute of Technology to head both Armour's and the Art Institute of Chicago's architecture program. The Art Institute would later separate and form its own program. Mies was given the task of designing a completely new campus, and the result was a spacious, open, 120-acre (0.49 km2) campus set in contrast to the busy, crowded urban neighborhood around it. The first Mies-designed buildings were completed in the mid-1940s, and construction on what is considered the "Mies Campus" continued until the early 1970s.

Engineering and research also saw great growth and expansion from the post-war period until the early 1970s. IIT experienced its greatest period of growth from 1952 to 1973 under President John T. Rettaliata, a fluid dynamicist whose research accomplishments included work on early development of the jet engine and a seat on the National Aeronautics and Space Council. This period saw IIT as the largest engineering school in the United States, as stated in a feature in the September 1953 issue of Popular Science magazine. IIT housed many research organizations: IIT Research Institute (formerly Armour Research Foundation and birthplace of magnetic recording wire and tape as well as audio and video cassettes), the Institute of Gas Technology, and the American Association of Railroads, among others.

State Street Village IIT dormitories

Three colleges merged with IIT after the 1940 Armor/Lewis merger: Institute of Design in 1949, Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1969, and Midwest College of Engineering in 1986. IIT's Stuart School of Business was founded by a gift from Lewis Institute alumnus Harold Leonard Stuart in the 1969, and joined Chicago-Kent at IIT's Downtown Campus in 1992; it phased out its undergraduate program (becoming graduate-only) after Spring 1995. (An undergraduate business program focusing on technology and entrepreneurship was launched in Fall 2004 and was for a while administratively separate from the Stuart School. It is now part of the school, but remains on Main Campus.) The Institute of Design, once housed on the Main Campus in S.R. Crown Hall, also phased out its undergraduate programs and moved downtown in the early 1990s.

Though not used in official communication, the nickname "Illinois Tech" has long been a favorite of students, inspiring the name of the student newspaper; (renamed in 1928 from Armour Tech News to TechNews), and the former mascot of the university's collegiate sports teams, the Techawks. During the 1950s and 1960s, the nickname was actually more prevalent than "IIT." This was reflected by the Chicago Transit Authority's Green Line rapid transit station at 35th and State being named "Tech-35th," but has since been changed to "35th-Bronzeville-IIT."

Today

Main building of the Armour Institute of Technology taken in 2008

In 1994, the National Commission on IIT considered leaving the Mies Main Campus and moving to the Chicago suburbs. Construction of a veritable wall of Chicago Housing Authority high-rises replaced virtually all of IIT's neighbors in the 1950s and 1960s, a well-meaning but flawed attempt to improve conditions in an economically declining portion of the city. The closest high-rise, Stateway Gardens, was located just south of the IIT campus boundary, the last building of which was demolished in 2006. But the Dearborn Homes to the immediate north of campus and the Harold Ickes Homes further north still remain. The past decade has seen a redevelopment of Stateway Gardens into a new, mixed-income neighborhood dubbed Park Boulevard; the completion of the new central station of the Chicago Police Department a block east of the campus; and major commercial development at Roosevelt Road, just north of the campus, and residential development as close as Michigan Avenue on the east boundary of the school.

Bolstered by a $120 million gift in the mid-1990s from IIT alumnus Robert Pritzker, former chairman of IIT's Board of Trustees, and Robert Galvin, former chairman of the board and former Motorola executive, the university has benefited from a revitalization. The first new buildings on Main Campus since the "completion" of the Mies Campus in the early 1970s were finished in 2003--Rem Koolhaas's McCormick Tribune Campus Center and Helmut Jahn's State Street Village. S.R. Crown Hall, a National Historic Landmark, saw renovation in 2005 and the renovation of Wishnick Hall was completed in 2007. Undergraduate enrollment has breached 2,500.[1] Chicago-Kent College of Law has been recognized as one of the top law schools in the Midwest, with leading faculty in international, technology, and health law. Stuart School of Business boasts the 11th ranked Finance/Financial Markets program in the world as ranked by Global Derivatives magazine. Older programs are still strong, as seen by recent growth in the nationally ranked College of Architecture and steady enrollment in the same period for other units. New programs—including biomedical engineering, undergraduate business, and Journalism of Technology, Science, and Business—have helped to bring more modernized education to a school still dominated by engineering and architecture programs. To further boost their focus on biotechnology and the melding of business and technology, University Technology Park At IIT, an expansive research park, has been developed by remodeling former Institute of Gas Technology and research buildings on the south end of Main Campus.

Academics

Academic units

 This section is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (March 2009)

IIT is divided into four colleges, three institutes, two schools, and a number of research centers, some of which provide academic programs independent of the other academic units. While many maintain undergraduate programs, some only offer graduate or certificate programs.

On the undergraduate level, the University grants a Professional Bachelor of Architecture for its five-year program in architecture and a Bachelor of Science in all other subjects. IIT maintains the following undergraduate degrees:

Rankings

Campus

IIT has five campuses:

Two other undergraduate institutions share IIT's Main Campus: VanderCook College of Music and Shimer College. Both institutions share dormitories with IIT and offer cross-registration for IIT students, significantly diversifying campus life.

Main Campus

McCormick Tribune Campus Center

IIT's Main Campus comprises about 10 city blocks in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, approximately three miles south of the Chicago Loop and just east of U.S. Cellular Field (formerly Comiskey Park). The CTA Green Line elevated trains run north and south through campus, and pass through the Exelon Tube, which is part of the McCormick Tribune Campus Center. The CTA Red Line runs north and south and is located just west of campus in the Dan Ryan Expressway median. State Street, which runs north and south, bisects the campus. On the east side of State Street are mostly student-oriented buildings, including residence halls, the campus center, student health and counseling offices, IIT Public Safety, and athletic facilities. On the west side of State Street are primarily academic and administrative buildings including Hermann Hall (IIT's Conference Center and former student union building), the Paul V. Galvin Library, and the University Technology Park. IIT is bordered on the north roughly by 30th Street, on the south by 35th Street, on the east by Michigan Avenue, and on the west by Metra's Rock Island Line.

Architecture

See also: List of Illinois Institute of Technology buildings
S.R. Crown Hall is a National Historic Landmark containing IIT's College of Architecture

On the west side of Main Campus are three red brick buildings that were original to Armour Institute, built between 1891 and 1901. In 1938, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe began his 20-year tenure as director of IIT's School of Architecture (1938–1959). The university was on the verge of building a brand new campus, to be one of the nation's first federally funded urban renewal projects. Mies was given carte blanche in the large commission, and the university grew fast enough during and after World War II to allow much of the ambitious new plan to be realized. From 1943 to 1957, several new Mies buildings rose across campus, including the S.R. Crown Hall which is now a National Historic Landmark and home of IIT's College of Architecture.

Though Mies had emphasized his wish to complete the campus he had begun, commissions from the late 50s onward were given to Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill (SOM), prompting Mies to never return to the campus that had changed architecture the world over. SOM architect Walter Netsch designed a few buildings, including the new library that Mies had wished to create, all of them similar to Mies's style. By the late 1960s, campus addition projects were given to SOM's Myron Goldsmith, who had worked with Mies during his education at IIT and thus was able to design several new buildings to harmonize well with the original campus. In 1976, the American Institute of Architects recognized the campus as one of the 200 most significant works of architecture in the United States. The new campus center, designed by Rem Koolhaas, and a new state-of-the-art residence hall designed by Helmut Jahn, State Street Village, opened in 2003. These were the first new buildings built on the Main Campus in 32 years.

The Mies Society offers both self-guided audio and docent-led tours of the architecture on campus.[14]

Sustainability

The university is in the process of developing a sustainability plan. [15]

Student Life

See also: Illinois Institute of Technology student groups

There are numerous student organizations available on campus, including religious groups, academic groups, and student activity groups. IIT hosts a campus radio station, WIIT, with an antenna located atop Main Building and a radio studio in the McCormick Tribune Campus Center. In September 2007, IIT opened a nine-hole disc golf course which weaves around the academic buildings on the Main Campus and is the first disc golf course to appear within the Chicago city limits.

In anticipation of the opening of the McCormick Tribune Campus Center, the on-campus pub and bowling alley known as "The BOG" ceased operations in 2003. In response to students, faculty, and staff who missed the former campus hangout, the BOG reopened in February 2007.

On the sixth floor of Main Building is the IIT Model Railroad Club. Founded in 1948, the club builds and runs an H0 scale model railway layout that occupies much of the floor.

In the fall of 2007, the third generation of a cappella groups was formed, The TechTonics, a coed group of students. Within a year the organization expanded and now includes an all-male group, the Crown Joules, and an all-female group, the X-Chromotones. IIT A Cappella performs a variety of shows on campus as well as off campus and in the midwest. They perform shows at the end of each semester which showcase everything they have learned.[16]

The Illinois Institute of Technology Main Campus has an established Greek System, which consists of 7 fraternities and 3 sororities. Fraternities and Sororities are active in community involvement, intramural sports, and campus leadership. Each spring, the IIT Greek Council holds the annual Greek Week which showcases the athleticism, creativity, and fortitude of Greek students on campus.

Athletics

IIT's athletic teams compete in the NAIA Division I Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference. The Athletic Department is one of the few IIT departments which uses "Illinois Tech" instead of "IIT," and has done so since the beginning of IIT in 1940. Teams compete in soccer, baseball, swimming and diving, and cross country running for men, and soccer, volleyball, swimming and diving, and cross country running for women. IIT discontinued its men's and women's basketball program in 2009.[17]

Achievements

  • Programming team went to 2004 and 2005 world finals.[18][19]
  • American Society of Civil Engineers Steel Bridge Team went to the 2008 National Competition after placing second in the 2008 Great Lakes Regional Competition.
  • The Formula Hybrid Team, of the Society of Automotive Engineers and IEEE, placed 3rd overall in the 2008 International Formula Hybrid Competition held in Loudon, New Hampshire, and placed placed 6th in 2007.

Notable people

See also: List of Illinois Institute of Technology alumni

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d "Illinois Institute of Technology - Best Colleges". U.S. News & World Report. http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college/items/1691. Retrieved on 2009-03-12. 
  2. ^ "John L. Anderson, President". Illinois Institute of Technology Office of the President. http://www.iit.edu/president/bio.shtml. Retrieved on 2009-03-14. 
  3. ^ a b c "IIT Viewbook" (PDF). 2008. p. 64. http://www.iitadmission.org/viewbook/PDF/IIT_Viewbook.pdf. Retrieved on 2009-03-14. 
  4. ^ "IIT Identity Standards Manual". 10 2001. http://www.iit.edu/departments/pr/downloads/pdf/standards_manual.pdf. Retrieved on 2009-05-17. 
  5. ^ a b "History of Illinois Institute of Technology". IIT. http://www.iit.edu/about/history/. Retrieved on 2009-03-24. 
  6. ^ Bear, Marjorie Warvelle; Bolger, George; Orawski, Tatiana Michelle (2007-12-27). A Mile Square of Chicago (1st ed.). Oak Brook, IL: TIPRAC. pp. 427. ISBN 9780963399540. OCLC 214074630. http://books.google.com/books?id=jRDCtoygdycC&pg=PA427. Retrieved on 2009-03-24. 
  7. ^ a b "Past Presidents — George N. Carman". IIT. http://www.iit.edu/president/past_presidents.shtml#Carman. Retrieved on 2009-03-24. 
  8. ^ "Ethel Percy Andrus Biography". AARP. http://www.aarp.org/aarp/articles/ethel_percy_andrus.html. Retrieved on 2009-03-24. 
  9. ^ Ohles, Frederik; Ohles, Shirley M.; Ramsay, John G. (1997). Biographical dictionary of modern American educators. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 9. ISBN 0313291330. OCLC 36430647. http://books.google.com/books?id=PBj5-zHEMvoC&pg=PA9. Retrieved on 2009-03-25. 
  10. ^ "IIT Armour College of Engineering". IIT. http://www.iit.edu/engineering/. Retrieved on 2009-04-10. 
  11. ^ "IIT College of Science and Letters". IIT. http://www.iit.edu/csl/. Retrieved on 2009-04-10. 
  12. ^ "Illinois Institute of Technology". The Princeton Review. http://www.princetonreview.com/IllinoisInstituteofTechnology.aspx. Retrieved on 2009-06-10. 
  13. ^ "Best Graduate Schools: Illinois Institute of Technology (Armour)". U.S. News & World Report. http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/items/02053. Retrieved on 2009-06-10. 
  14. ^ "Mies Society Tours". http://www.iit.edu/giving/mies/tours/. Retrieved on 2009-03-14. 
  15. ^ "Sustainability". Illinois Institute of Technology. http://www.iit.edu/sustainability/. Retrieved on 2009-06-05. 
  16. ^ Shaughnessy, Ciaran (2008-05-06). "A Cappella Back at IIT". TechNews. http://technews.iit.edu/index.php?id=1074. Retrieved on 2009-03-12. 
  17. ^ Olkon, Sara (2009-03-26). "IIT shuts down basketball program". Chicago Breaking News Center. http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/03/iit-shuts-down-basketball-program.html. Retrieved on 2009-04-13. 
  18. ^ http://icpc.baylor.edu/past/icpc2004/Finals/Standings04.pdf
  19. ^ http://icpc.baylor.edu/past/icpc2005/Finals/Standings.html

References


See also

External links

Sister project Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Illinois Institute of Technology
v • d • e
Illinois Institute of Technology
Institutes
Buildings
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Presidents
Frank W. Gunsaulus (1892–1921) · Howard M. Raymond (1922–1932) · Willard E. Hotchkiss (1933–1937) · George N. Carman (1896–1936) · Dugald C. Jackson, Jr. (1936–1938) · Fred A. Rogers (1938–1940) · Clarence L. Clarke (1938–1940) · Henry Townley Heald (1937–1952) · John T. Rettaliata (1952–1973) · Maynard P. Venema (1973–1974) · Thomas Lyle Martin, Jr. (1974–1987) · Meyer Feldberg (1987–1989) · Henry R. Linden (1989–1990) · Lewis Collens (1990–2007) · John L. Anderson (2008–)
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