Over the summer, with little input from faculty, staff, and students, Illinois Institute of Technology went through the most dramatic changes it has gone through in decades. For the most part it was not publicly acknowledged, but implied, that the university would be shifting from a seven-college system to a three-college system. However, below the surface, the administration was going through a much bigger transition than previously thought. One triggered by years of mismanagement of money and resources; bringing forth one of the largest layoffs in university history. Additionally, a significant revenue stream for Illinois Tech had been almost entirely cut after new federal rules and processes for international students left Illinois Tech with far less enrollment than the class entering in the Fall 2025. This fall, students are navigating a very different Illinois Tech, one facing financial woes, a cut to faculty, a cut to staff, and a difficult budget reality that will affect the student experience.
First things first, Illinois Tech has been reorganized into three colleges. These colleges originated from seven colleges: The Armour College of Engineering, College of Architecture, College of Computing, Lewis College of Science and Letter, Stuart School of Business, Chicago-Kent College of Law, and Institute of Design all make up the formerly seven colleges of Illinois Tech. Today, we are now three colleges. Those being the College of Design Futures, College of Tech Futures, and College of Professional Futures make up Illinois Tech’s programs for individual institutions within the university. The consolidated colleges each have respected schools. The College of Design Futures contains the School of Architecture and School of Design and Society. The College of Tech Futures contains the School of Computing and the School of Engineering, Applied Science, and Health. The College of Professional Futures contains the School of Law and School of Business. Any previous names have been dropped since the start of the semester.
While there are no formalized changes to existing degree paths being offered, faculty and staff cuts have been brought into question following the dismissal of two core Industrial-Organizational Psychology professors which essentially guided the program, leaving the several associated PhD students without faculty to rely on for advising and classes, and several students have opted to leave Illinois Tech as a result. Some of the other changes seen with this consolidation are the consolidation of classroom, building, and machine shops. The School of Architecture now has one certification for all machine shops on campus, including its own Architecture shop. Certain Architecture and Landscape Architecture courses have been combined with Inter Professional (IPRO) courses. Many courses have been cross-listed meaning some majors will have non-major students in their prerequisite courses, which are offered as elective to those students not within the major of that course.
Prior to this shift in colleges though, there was already understanding of the university’s shrinking population, and potential troubles that were brewing. This all started when the university leadership made the decision a few years ago to move into a 403G system for faculty and staff, versus the previous 401K system used for retirement funds. For those who don’t know the difference, a 403G is essentially a retirement plan that does not require the university to match the retirement contributions of those working for the university; while a 401k is a contribution matching retirement plan. 401k’s in this case are preferred as they match the funds submitted by the employees for retirement. Alongside this decision, several months later, a hiring freeze was put in place for lower level staff and faculty. Though that has been broken several times across campus, especially now with the hiring of new adjunct faculty to teach certain courses that were previously taught by faculty that have since been laid off. In the same announcement of the 403G retirement, President Echambadi had announced a raise in pay for his salary as well as other leadership members, making him one of the highest paid university presidents in the world, at $800,000 before bonuses. This information can be found on ProPublica. It is unclear at this moment if the 403G is still in place. However, alongside these new rules and systems, this past summer, a 10% cut in salary was announced for faculty and staff making over $100,000, with potential for more depending on the salary. It is not certain who had their salary cut, with leadership being the highest paid members in the university staff.
In addition to these new and old changes, Illinois Tech saw one of the largest layoffs of professors in its recent history; the second largest in the Midwest right below Northwestern University in July 2025. Almost a year on the dot after Northwestern removed 200 faculty and staff, Illinois Tech’s leadership made the decision to cut roughly 160 (actual numbers put it at 163 from anonymous sources) faculty and staff positions, with departments in computing, sciences, and engineering getting the biggest hit. According to anonymous sources within the faculty, the decision was made using a list of criteria that consisted of time teaching, age, yearly credit hours taught, salary, and contributions to the university. However, certain members of the faculty and staff that have been cut have brought into question those criteria as they do not fit the ideal presumed criteria of people who should have been laid off. For example, laying off faculty that were bringing in millions of dollars of research and grant money. It was also said from an anonymous source that leadership planned administrative cuts first before faculty, which would have apparently led to a $28M cut in required funds to keep Illinois Tech out of a deep red. It is unclear whether administrative cuts actually occurred, and current evidence does not support the statement from leadership. Additionally, many core classes in computing and engineering have seen cancellations, which could cause problems for those who graduate soon. The faculty cuts have also led to a student faculty ratio of 14 to one for the 2026-2027 school year. It is also still unclear how this criteria was thought of, and how the scoring system was created. Below will be a sheet handed to TechNews, via an anonymous source, of the exact individuals that have been cut from the university. However, for privacy reasons, names have been redacted, leaving only their positions and associated age of the respective faculty or staff member. TechNews would like to recognize those who have publicly announced their departure, including Lance Fortnow, Ron Henderson, Sanjiv Kapoor, Andrew Bauer, Oliver Michel, Grui Calinescu, Susan Conger Austin, and Mahjoub Elnimeiri. This list is not exhaustive, but is only a small fraction of all faculty and staff members that have been laid off despite their contributions.
One of the next biggest hits to the university is the loss of the international student base. The university has lost almost virtually all of its international student base, which funneled millions into the university. An approximate 4,350 students are registered for Fall 2026, which is half of what Illinois Tech had 24 months ago. This is apparently due to federal actions from the Department of Education under the Trump administration, the evolution of the tech industry, visa denials, and a K-12 enrollment cliff. These do track with what happened in the year prior, which saw a 6,423 student enrollment population for Fall 2025 (down from nearly 8000); however, it is still unclear how the conclusion of the enrollment cliff was arrived at. This has led to a dramatic drop in graduate student enrollment, despite the schools of business and architecture seeing record numbers once more.
While leadership has been trying to assure the university student population that the student experience will be unaffected, it has become readily apparent that will simply not be the case. With a cut of enrollment, the Student Activity Fund (SAF) will be significantly smaller this year. Due to this fact, the Student Government Association (SGA) is attempting to curb the misuse of funds this year using auditors to make sure all funds are used appropriately and are for the benefit of all students. Additionally, it was revealed by an anonymous source that approximately 160 students were told just a few weeks before the start of classes that there will be no beds available for them, forcing students to get emergency off campus housing, which will have caused a much larger cost for them than living on campus. Students who lived within 20 miles of the school were encouraged to stay off campus and live at home. Gunsaulus and the McCormick Student Village (MSV) were closed permanently. Gunsaulus was considered a total loss; needing significant renovations. MSV is not a total loss but is in serious need of refurbishment and renovation before students can move in. This meant the Carman and Rowe apartments were opened up to the first and second year students; which was previously not allowed.
This difficult time for the university has not exactly gone over smoothly with the university faculty. Just after President Echambadi declared Financial Exigency, the faculty called to action the University Faculty Senate (UFS) after a over two decade period of silence. The UFS met just days after the initial announcement of these changes in July, and just days prior to the start of August, voted no confidence in leadership at the university. The specific leadership being President Raj Echambadi, Vice President Mallik Sundharam, and Provost Elizabeth Hudson. The vote was 84-4 with 5 (or 6 depending on sources) abstentions. This rare but significant vote triggered the Trustees to affirm their confidence in leadership; though faculty have not voted again for confidence, it has remained clear based on sources from inside the UFS that the support from faculty to leadership remains unconditionally lost. After this vote, the UFS voted on several other items. On August 10, several resolutions were voted on with the UFS. The UFS voted for the leadership to release the specific conditions of the Financial Exigency, which according to the employee handbook can only be called after a vote by the UFS has been conducted. This demanded that those conditions be released within five business days; this did not happen as far as TechNews is aware. Another resolution for the reinstatement of terminated faculty; this has not happened. A third resolution for the release of information on university financial management. The fourth resolution called for the leadership to guarantee faculty and staff protections after the declaration of the financial exigency. It was noted in this resolution that the leadership failed to follow procedure in declaring “extraordinary financial exigency” which is outlined in the faculty and staff handbook. It is the only way a layoff of this scale is contractually possible. This declaration has yet to be made by leadership, which has violated the faculty and staff handbook guidelines around financial exigency and layoffs. The last resolution was in defense of the I-O Psychology program, which had lost its last two core faculty members, and relocated the program to the School of Business without faculty consultation. The faculty called for the leadership to reverse this decision, and to follow the guidelines of the faculty, staff, and student handbooks which specifically outline rules for how the university is managed by recommendations from faculty, students, and staff; not by executive decisions as seen with Coursera and the acquisition of a campus in Mumbai, India.
All in all, Illinois Tech is facing a very challenging few years ahead. There is no easy way of putting it. However, that is where you as students, faculty, and staff come in. Make your voices heard and opinions known, because now more than ever, the university needs its students, faculty, and staff to work together to keep Illinois Tech going. Illinois Tech has an incredible education to offer, but it is no secret at this point that a lot of control over our institution was surrendered to our leadership the past several years. It is our job now to make sure our leadership knows what we want as students, faculty, and staff. Navigating times like these may be difficult and uncertain, but if we work through it together, we will come out the other side stronger than ever.