In July, The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Business Administration announced the opening of its fifth academic department — The Stuart Handler Department of Real Estate. Stuart Handler, a Chicagoland Apartment Association (CAA) board member and past board president, is CEO of TLC Management Co., a full-service leasing and management company.

This department joins the accounting, finance, information and decision sciences and managerial studies departments in serving the college’s more than 3,000 undergraduate and 800 graduate students.

“I want to give people in Chicago and at UIC — a population that largely comes from families who have immigrated to this country— a chance to have a stake in the real estate in their neighborhoods,” Handler said in a news release. “This a great opportunity for graduates of the department to find jobs in this vital industry.”

Handler’s monetary donation to the progression of UIC Business and its students is the second highest ever received by the college and the second named department on campus.

“We are grateful to Stuart for his generous support of UIC and the College of Business Administration, which continues to evolve to meet the demands of business and serve the needs of all of its students,” UIC Chancellor Michael Amiridis said in a news release. “The addition of the department that bears his name is an exciting contribution to our mission to serve the city and its students, as well as our efforts to build a more entrepreneurial university for the future.”