Earlier this year, while helping a friend inquire about the acquisition of an American university, someone suggested contacting President Chan of the California International Technological University, saying he might have plans to sell the school. Looking into the school online, I discovered its remarkable background. Its founder was Shu-park Chan, the son of Chan Jitang, the Cantonese warlord of the Republic of China era, and its current president is Yau-Gene Chan, Chan Jitang’s grandson.
In Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, and other cities, there are many former residences of famous figures. When visiting them, one often wonders: where are the descendants of these historical figures we see so often in textbooks? What are they doing now? Is a person’s life really like a wisp of smoke, vanishing without a trace? Of course not—so long as there are descendants, their story never truly ends.
A Family Legend and the Dream of Education
In early 20th-century China, the era of warlord division swept across the ancient land like a long, unending storm. Among those swept up in it was Chan Jitang—known as the “Southern King”—a unique modernizing warlord of the Cantonese faction. He was not merely a conqueror, but a reformer driven by dreams of industrialization. His story was not only a microcosm of the warlord era but also the beginning of a three-generation family pursuit—a dream that ultimately took root in the soil of Silicon Valley, growing into an institution known as the International Technological University (ITU), carrying a legacy from Guangzhou to California.
Chan Jitang was born on January 23, 1890, into a Hakka family in Fangcheng, Guangxi. It was a turbulent time—the Qing dynasty was collapsing and revolutionary fires were being lit across China. In 1908, at just 18, Chen followed Sun Yat-sen and joined the Tongmenghui, throwing himself into the revolution to overthrow the monarchy. After the 1911 Revolution, he quickly rose through the ranks of the Guangdong military, from battalion commander to brigade commander, eventually becoming a powerful figure within the Nationalist army. During the warlord-torn 1920s, Chan’s military skill and political acumen allowed him to gain control of Guangdong, becoming the leading figure of the Cantonese clique.
From 1928 to 1936, Chan governed Guangdong for eight years—a period later hailed as the “Golden Age of Guangdong.” Unlike other warlords who ruled by plunder, Chan focused on modernization. He viewed Guangzhou as a testing ground for industrial reform, promoting a strategy of “national salvation through industry.” He attracted foreign investment and technology and built major infrastructure. Streets in Guangzhou were widened, skyscrapers rose, and the Pearl River saw China’s first mechanical lift bridge. He also built China’s first “smokeless” green factory, as well as hydropower plants and over 200 light and heavy industrial facilities. Moreover, he established a comprehensive social welfare system covering healthcare, education, and relief, fostering Guangdong’s economic and social development.
In June 1936, the Liangguang Incident broke out. Chan, allied with Guangxi leaders Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, opposed Chiang Kai-shek’s centralization and advocated provincial autonomy, leading to severe political and military conflict. Ultimately, due to weaker forces and internal pressures, Chan’s rebellion failed, ending his rule in Guangdong. After the mainland fell in 1949, Chan retreated to Taiwan with the Nationalists, serving as Senior Advisor to the Office of the ROC President while continuing to promote education, founding Deming School. In November 1954, while surveying a school site in Taipei, he suffered a cerebral thrombosis and died at the age of 63.
Chan fathered eighteen children in his lifetime. He placed great emphasis on their education, sending all ten of his sons to study in the United States—most in engineering—including his tenth son, Shu-Park Chan. To Chan, American higher education was the best in the world, and engineering was the foundation of national rejuvenation.
Shu-Park Chan was born in Guangzhou in 1929 and came to the U.S. at 19. He earned his undergraduate degree from the Virginia Military Institute and later obtained a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After earning his doctorate, he joined Santa Clara University, rising from assistant professor to department chair and later dean.
Shu-Park Chan never forgot his father’s dream of national progress through education. In the early 1990s, he planned to establish a university in Guangdong, continuing his father’s modern educational vision, even seeking a meeting with Deng Xiaoping. However, for various reasons, the plan failed. Disappointed, he turned his attention back to Silicon Valley—the global cradle of technology. In 1992, he took early retirement from Santa Clara University and, two years later, in 1994, founded the International Technological University (ITU) in San Jose, California.
At 65, Shu-Park Chan devoted himself wholeheartedly to the school, seeing it as the next chapter in his family’s mission. ITU emphasized applied learning, hiring Silicon Valley industry leaders as instructors, and tailoring courses to industry trends in fields like electrical engineering, computer engineering, engineering management, and international business. Though initially small, ITU’s approach attracted Silicon Valley professionals. Shu-Park’s academic reputation and network—his former students included founders of companies like Cadence and Atmel—brought ITU vitality.
WASC Accreditation and the Rise and Fall of the University
In 2005, ITU reached a turning point. Now elderly, Shu-Park Chan handed over operations to his son Yau-Gene Chan, appointing him Executive Vice President. Born in 1964 in Santa Clara, California, Yau-Gene earned a sociology bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and a master’s degree in performing arts from UCLA. Having spent many years studying in Taiwan, he was familiar with Chinese traditions and culture. Though he had never met his grandfather, he deeply understood the family’s belief in education through his father’s teachings.
When Yau-Gene took over ITU in 2005, the university was losing $300,000 annually—a deficit it had suffered every year since its founding in 1994. Instead of retreating, he invited education expert Dr. Gerald Cory to join the board. Together, they rebuilt the institution: optimizing programs, streamlining administration, and strengthening industry partnerships. Within three years—by late 2008—ITU achieved a surplus of $4.2 million, marking its transformation from a family dream into a sustainable institution.
In 2006, Yau-Gene initiated the WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges) accreditation process. WASC is one of six U.S. regional accrediting agencies recognized by the Department of Education, overseeing over 200 institutions on the West Coast. Achieving regional accreditation is the “gold standard” of U.S. higher education, symbolizing academic rigor and global recognition.
For ITU, the road to accreditation was arduous. As a small private university, it had to prove instructional quality, financial stability, and student achievement. Yau-Gene and his team thoroughly studied WASC’s standards and best practices, embarking on a long and difficult journey toward accreditation.
In 2010, Yau-Gene Chan formally succeeded his father as ITU’s President and CEO. In 2011, the university moved to a new downtown San Jose campus—tripling its size. On February 22, 2013, WASC officially granted ITU accreditation—the very same day Shu-Park Chan died of a heart attack at age 84. This “heavenly coincidence” was seen as the completion of a family mission.
Following accreditation, ITU’s reputation soared. Student enrollment jumped from a few hundred to 1,500, 94% of whom were international students, mainly from India and China. The school launched MBA, master’s, and doctoral programs, emphasizing Day 1 CPT/OPT, allowing students to work full-time upon enrollment—a major draw for Silicon Valley professionals.
However, good times did not last. In 2015, WASC launched a “third-party review” investigation, questioning ITU’s visa policies and admissions practices. The agency argued that the proportion of international students was excessively high and that some viewed ITU as a means to extend their F-1 visas rather than for genuine academic pursuits. That same year, the Board of Trustees persuaded Yau-Gene Chan to step down and appointed a preferred candidate as acting president, while Chan transitioned to a position on the board. Yet, ITU’s situation did not improve—rather, it worsened.
In October 2019, WASC issued a Show Cause Order, citing multiple violations: disorganized leadership, insufficient faculty, and unsustainable finances. Yau-Gene disputed these findings, claiming the evaluation itself was deeply flawed.
In June 2022, WASC decided to revoke ITU’s accreditation. ITU appealed, managing to stay operational during the appeal process, but international enrollment plummeted—from 800 in 2023 to 200 in 2025. The school once again faced deficits exceeding $1 million per year. In June 2025, WASC made its final decision: the accreditation was officially withdrawn, leaving ITU an unaccredited private university.
Can It Rise Again from the Fall?
Opening ITU’s website today, one still finds complete course listings and program information, as if campus life continued undisturbed. Yet without accreditation, the school risks losing federal funding eligibility, transfer creditability, and market recognition. Enrollment has plunged, revenue has fallen by more than 70%, and the institution now faces existential pressure.
Facing adversity, Yau-Gene Chan did not sit idle but actively sought a new path forward. He told reporters that ITU would be rebuilt as an Artificial Intelligence University — an institution that closely integrates higher education with AI technology. The new university aims to become a data-driven, personalized intelligent university. It will use AI to enhance teaching, research, and administration through adaptive curriculum design, intelligent tutoring systems, and global collaborative research, transforming education from traditional instruction to innovative, practice-oriented learning. At the same time, it will drastically reduce the cost of education, making college accessible to nearly everyone: students will pay tuition monthly — $100 for U.S. students and $250 for international students.
Chan’s decision to pursue this strategic transformation is rooted both in the pulse of Silicon Valley and his insights into American higher education. On one hand, the AI wave — driven by tools like ChatGPT and Gemini — is reshaping industries worldwide. On the other, the soaring cost of higher education in the U.S. has burdened millions of students with staggering debt. Through a bold and differentiated strategy, Chan hopes to attract strategic investment and open a new path for the university’s future development.
Over the past decade, American higher education has been undergoing a structural crisis. Declining international enrollment, geopolitical tensions, demographic shifts, and skyrocketing tuition costs have placed unprecedented strain on traditional universities. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, international student numbers have kept falling—NAFSA data projects a 30–40% decline in new international enrollment in Fall 2025, amounting to a $7 billion economic loss. Stricter visa policies under the Trump administration, intensified U.S.-China tensions, and competition from Canada and the U.K. have all worsened the trend. Meanwhile, domestic enrollment is also shrinking—the “demographic cliff” is expected to reduce the number of U.S. high school graduates by 15% after 2025, intensifying competition for admissions.
Small private colleges have been hit hardest: in 2024 alone, 20 closed or merged—an average of one per week. Even some public universities have had to close branch campuses and cut programs. The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee shut down a satellite campus, leaving only 1,500 international students—7% of total enrollment. The University of North Texas expects to lose $47.3 million in tuition revenue in 2025. By contrast, low-cost, career-focused schools are growing, becoming a practical choice for many students. Overall, U.S. higher education is shifting from an “era of expansion” to an “era of restructuring,” with its core challenge moving from scale and prestige to sustainable survival in a new economic and social landscape.
Within this “perfect storm” of higher education, ITU’s fate is not unique but emblematic of the times. Losing accreditation is indeed a devastating blow—but aside from the Ivy League and top state flagships, how many schools can truly remain untouched? Amid the glowing narrative of elite universities with ever-rising student quality and financial strength, countless small and mid-sized colleges are quietly shrinking or fading away. Their decline is silent yet unstoppable, forming the most genuine fissures in the landscape of American higher education.
The Chan family’s three generations of dedication to education across a century have infused this legacy with a human touch — from the “Southern Industrial King’s” dream of industrial progress, to the Silicon Valley engineer’s educational bridge, and now to the education innovator of the artificial intelligence era. It is a family lineage bound by a lifelong commitment to education. Whether ITU can rise again remains uncertain—but one thing is clear: as long as fight continues and life endures, this story of family legacy and educational aspiration will live on.
