The Tribune has editorially supported the public funding of a multi-university, anchored by the University of Illinois, in Du Page County. The multi-university is to serve the technical industries that have developed over the last decade in the western suburbs. In essence, the Tribune believes that moving the university to the environs of industry to establish the academic affiliations these companies seek is an adequate response to a reasonable private-sector request. The Tribune analysis does not consider alternate solutions. Others have.
New York City, in the face of competition from its suburbs for high-tech jobs and demands by industry for academic support, has persuaded industries to move to downtown Brooklyn and become partners in Metrotech, a $1 billion, 16,000-job, 16-acre, 47-million square foot commercial, academic and high-tech complex. Polytechnic University is the center and prime mover of Metrotech and with an investment of $47 million plus incentives from the City of New York has already secured 5,000 jobs for Brooklyn without a brick being laid.
If Polytechnic University, one-fourth the size of the University of Illinois at Chicago, can spawn a Metrotech, one would think that a UIC-sponsored ”Chicago Tech” could be a viable alternative to the costly and risky venture of trying to establish a university in the western suburbs. If the Westgate Mill District immediately north of UIC is any guide, the Near West Side could anchor a ”Chicago Tech” that would provide commercial space cheaper than the suburbs and offer a comprehensive academic presence at no cost to the state.
