Brooke Elliott’s Balancing Act: Protecting Illinois’ Global Mission Amid Political Headwinds

For Brooke Elliott, dean of the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois, the biggest challenge she faces today isn’t technological disruption or shifting student demographics. It’s politics.

“The changing political environment and the current administration’s view toward higher education has been disruptive,” says Elliott, who took over as dean in August of last year. “Not only from a funding perspective and our ability to generate revenue, but more importantly, in our ability to perform our mission.”

That mission—serving a global learner audience—has been at the heart of Illinois’ identity. But recent shifts in visa policy, rhetoric toward higher education, and uncertainty about international engagement have put real numbers behind those political tremors. This fall alone, Gies lost about 200 international students in its master’s programs in finance and business analytics, a shortfall that cost the college roughly $7 million in tuition revenue.

‘INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS BRING PERSPECTIVES THAT ELEVATE EVERYONE’S EXPERIENCE’

“It’s not just the financial impact,” Elliott explains. “It’s that these learners bring perspectives that elevate everyone’s experience. When you bring together people who’ve lived in different parts of the world, it enriches every learner’s journey.”

Despite the turbulence, Elliott remains upbeat as she is enthusiastic. “I have never been more optimistic about higher education in Illinois,” she says. “Much of what we do here flies in the face of the critics of higher education.”

The only business school dean in America who proudly drives a mammoth Ford F-150 Raptor R truck and wears skinny jeans and bright blue and orange Jordans is up for the challenge. Still, she acknowledges that fear and uncertainty have crept into the culture of academia, making it harder to innovate. “You can’t worry about what you can’t control—you have to focus on what you can,” she says.

ALLOW STUDENTS TO DEFER AND CREATING SPRING STARTS TO ACCOMMODATE INTERNATIONALS

That resolve was tested when international visa delays prevented many students from arriving on campus this fall. “Visa interviews weren’t even close to meeting demand,” Elliott says. “We had to allow students to defer their admissions and create spring start dates for programs that had never offered them before.”

Like many of her fellow U.S. deans, she worries about the long-term perception of U.S. higher education abroad. “For decades, the United States has been viewed as the preeminent destination for higher education,” she notes. “But peers I speak with in Europe, Australia, and Asia tell me the opposite problem—they have booming demand and can’t serve all the learners who want degrees. It’s going to be difficult to bring those students back once this shift occurs.”

The enrollment fallout hasn’t been uniform. Gies’ Master’s in Accountancy, which begins in June, met its target because students had more time to secure visas. But the finance and business analytics programs—two of Gies’ largest residential graduate offerings—were hit hard. And while the school’s highly successful online MBA program is largely immune from the pressures because it does not require in-person residencies like some rival options, more than 20% of the 4,673 enrolled students last year were from overseas.

A NEW RECORD FRESHMEN UNDERGRADUATE CLASS IN BUSINESS

By contrast, the college’s undergraduate business program is flourishing. This fall, Gies enrolled its largest freshman class ever—787 students, up from 661 the year before. “We yielded over 800 students when we expected just under 700,” Elliott says proudly. “That tells me that students still believe deeply in what we’re offering.”

Elliott is candid about the economics of running a modern business school. “Our model is simple: a small stream from the state, philanthropic dollars, and tuition revenue,” she says. “That means I’d better be really good at raising money.”

Fortunately, she inherited a college in strong financial shape from her predecessor, Jeff Brown, whose leadership and fundraising helped finance the just-opened Wymer Hall, a state-of-the-art facility designed to support Gies’ growing enrollment and online capacity.

RAISED $30 MILLION IN FIRST YEAR, THIRD-HIGHEST TOTAL IN SCHOOL HISTORY

What makes Elliott’s first year remarkable is that she managed to raise $30 million in new funds—the third-highest total in school history—even as Brown was still closing out the Wymer Hall campaign. “Half of that $30 million went directly to scholarships,” Elliott says. “Our priority is access and affordability. We can’t expand opportunity without both.”

That scholarship surge is already making a difference. Gies awarded $1.6 million in scholarships to students this year, up from just $900,000 a year earlier. “Accessibility isn’t just about opening doors; it’s about making sure students can afford to walk through them,” she says.

Elliott believes that maintaining excellence demands calculated risk. “You cannot be innovative if you’re not willing to fail,” she says. “We’re going to expend resources that won’t generate an immediate financial return, but there will be a return on what we learn.”

GIES COLLEGE: DEVOTED TO EXPANDING ACCESS TO A QUALITY EDUCATION

That mindset is guiding new investments. Gies is close to launching an online Master’s in Business Analytics in partnership with Coursera, turning a moment of international enrollment weakness into a diversification opportunity. “Our online programs help offset the volatility in residential international enrollment,” Elliott explains. “This year, while on-campus graduate enrollments are down, our online enrollments are up.”

Elliott’s vision for Gies centers on expanding access while protecting quality. “We turn away thousands of qualified students every year,” she says. “Many come from families that have attended Illinois for generations. Our goal is to enroll 800 new students a year, and we’re getting there.”

That ambition is supported by new classroom capacity in Wymer Hall, a stronger scholarship pipeline, and an ongoing effort to align delivery with modern learning science. “The idea that 25 students in a physical classroom is the only optimal learning environment just isn’t true,” she says. “What matters are the learning objectives and how we meet them.”

FIVE PROFS NOW HAVE FULLY DIGITAL VERSIONS OF THEMSELVES

If politics is Elliott’s toughest challenge, technology is her boldest frontier. Under her leadership, Gies has become a proving ground for artificial intelligence in both teaching and research. The college is partnering with the Grainger College of Engineering to launch a campus-wide AI initiative that will include new undergraduate certificates and a degree program.

Elliott is also spearheading one of higher education’s most ambitious experiments in digital teaching: faculty avatars. Five Gies professors—including Elliott herself—now have fully digital versions of themselves that can teach, answer student questions, and even speak multiple languages.

“My avatar can speak Mandarin with a southern accent,” she laughs. “I’m a 24/7 teaching assistant.”

‘WE’RE IN A POSITION THAT ALLOWS US TO TAKE RISKS OTHERS CAN’T’

Each avatar is governed by a memorandum of understanding that safeguards the faculty member’s rights and intellectual property. The avatars allow Gies to update course material instantly—without pulling faculty back into studios. “It’s a tremendous efficiency gain,” Elliott says. “And it lets us personalize learning in ways we couldn’t before.”

Elliott knows that Gies’ strong balance sheet and culture of experimentation are its greatest advantages in a volatile environment. “What we do now is excellent,” she says, “but if we do nothing, in two to five years we will no longer be known as excellent.”

Her philosophy is simple: lead, don’t wait. “We’re in a financial position that allows us to take risks others can’t,” she says. “If we stop innovating, we stop leading.”

And with a new building, new programs, and a growing sense of global purpose, Brooke Elliott seems determined to keep Gies—and Illinois—on the offensive.

DON’T MISS: HOW A PROF’s JOKE & A DEAN’S SCHOLARSHIP LED TO A $25 MILLION NAMING GIFT or NEW GIES DEAN: ‘THE SECOND REVOLUTION IS COMING’

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