One Way to Help Chicago (and Illinois) to Crawl Out of the Depths of Destruction
A group of people just gave IIT $150MM. IIT is a small tech-focused school in Bronzeville on the near South Side of Chicago. You can get there on the Green Line or on the bus. It’s not too far from where the White Sox play. The campus has some very elegantly designed buildings. I was down there the other day picking something up from Howard Tullman. Howard is running the Ed Kaplan Institute there and I expect like everything Howard does, it will be highly successful at churning out talent and startups.
A couple of years ago, Larry Gies and his wife Beth gave Illinois $150MM. The Grainger company gave Illinois Engineering $300MM, and Thomas Siebel has consistently donated money to the engineering school over the years. He credits much of his success to Illinois.
You don’t have to be an alum to donate. Ken Griffin isn’t an alum of Chicago but he donated to the University of Chicago.
The University of Chicago has been on a binge to increase endowment and donations. So has Northwestern.
Why is this important and more importantly, why is this important for Chicago and Illinois?
First, donations ensure the long term health of the school. They aren’t cheap to operate and while we know there is a bubble in college education these days, the money will help these schools attract top talent. The bubble is an opportunity, not a bug. Some colleges will collapse on themselves. I think that the college ranking system has been too stagnant for too long and there is an opportunity to shake it up. Money gives colleges the opportunity to do that.
When colleges have financial breathing room, they can innovate. Look at what Illinois did with it’s MBA program. Chicago’s Polsky Center came from one donation thanks to Michael Polsky. Ed Kaplan who also donated to IIT, donated money to Chicago to start the New Venture Challenge. Look at the opportunities that spun out of that and the way it has raised standards of living for all of society.
How about the city and state?
Chicago and the state of Illinois have a reputation. Some of it is well earned. Some of it is just window dressing. I am in LA right now and when I mention that I live in Chicago the first thing people do is mention the weather. Giving colleges in Illinois money gives them the chance to recruit students from all over and exposes them to what it is really like. Sure, we have winter in Chicago but so do a lot of other places on the planet. It’s not as if Boston has a mild winter. Neither does NYC. Chicago doesn’t have wildfires and sitting on my daughter’s porch last night we not only smelled one but had some ash raining on us. We don’t get that in Chicago.
I asked one person if she ever had an Italian beef with giardiniera and she looked at me like I was from Mars.
In an information economy, the biggest asset is talent. Money and opportunity attract talent. Right now, the “alpha” in Chicago is not compelling enough to massively attract talent. Not like LA, NYC, SF or Boston. We have to continue to invest and build the startup ecosystem to get there. Important note; this is not about moving slices of pie but it’s about making the entire pie larger. Chicago getting bigger isn’t going to detract from other places. Chicago getting bigger is going to be additive to every place.
Over a number of years, I have donated to my alma maters. I am sure I will again. I hope you do too. If you aren’t an alum of Illinois, IIT, Chicago, or Northwestern but you are concerned about the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois, you should write a check to one of them. Your check will help attract talent, and the professors that can help them make a difference. Even if it’s a small check, $25 to $100 it makes a difference. If you have a lot of wealth and can write a larger check, do it.
There is only one way out of this mess. It’s for the city and state to declare bankruptcy, then fill the pipeline with energized people building startup companies that will create opportunities for all of us