Columbia College Chicago

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Columbia College Chicago

Columbia College Chicago seal

Motto Esse Quam Videri
(Latin for "To be, rather than to seem.")
Established 1890
Type Private
Endowment $60 million
President Warrick L. Carter
Faculty 1,250
Students 11,499
Undergraduates 10,771
Postgraduates 728
Location Chicago, Illinois, USA
Campus Urban
Colors Periwinkle, Black, Grey
Website colum.edu

Columbia College Chicago is the largest arts communications college in the United States. Founded in 1890, the school is located in the South Loop of Chicago.

Contents

[edit] History

Columbia was founded in 1890 as a speech and teaching college for women. In the 1950s the college broadened its educational base to include television and other areas of communication and media arts. However, by 1962 Columbia had fewer than 200 students, a part-time faculty of 25, and no endowments, subsidies or visibility.

Mike Alexandroff became president in 1963, intent on fashioning a new approach to liberal arts education. He thought that many students had become disenchanted with the highly structured academic experience offered by most traditional universities and Columbia offered an affordable and imaginative liberal education, as well as an exceptional faculty made up almost exclusively of working professionals. He established an open-admissions policy so that any qualified high school graduate could have the opportunity to work toward achieving their educational and professional goals.

In 1964 the college moved into rented warehouse space at 540 N. Lake Shore Drive and by 1969 the college's enrollment had reached 700.

In 1974 Columbia won full accreditation as a four-year, undergraduate liberal arts school by the North Central Association of Schools and Colleges. By 1976 enrollment had passed the 2,000 mark and the college purchased its first real estate, the 175,000 square-foot building at 600 S. Michigan. At the time of Alexandroff's retirement in 1992, Columbia College served 6,791 students and owned or rented more than 643,000 square feet of instructional, performance and administrative space.

John B. Duff, former commissioner of the Chicago Public Library and former chancellor of the Massachusetts Board of Regents of Higher Education, succeeded Mr. Alexandroff as the college's president. During his tenure the school continued to expand educational offerings and community outreach, as well as adding to the physical campus.

Duff retired in August 2000 and was succeeded by Warrick L. Carter, an educator, jazz composer and performing artist. Dr. Carter joined Columbia from The Walt Disney Company, where he spent four years as director of entertainment arts.

Previously he spent 12 years at Berklee College of Music in Boston, the world’s largest independent school of music, where he served as dean of faculty and then provost/vice president of academic affairs.

In May 2001, Columbia reorganized its academic departments and programs under four schools: Fine & Performing Arts, Graduate and Continuing Education, Liberal Arts & Sciences, and Media Arts.

As of Fall 2006, enrollment topped 11,000.[1] Currently, Columbia College Chicago owns more than 1.2 million square feet in Chicago's South Loop, with plans for much expansion over the upcoming years.

Columbia's Logo
Columbia's Logo

[edit] Campus Media

The Columbia Chronicle is the college's weekly newspaper. Frequency TV is the college's television station. WCRX (88.1 FM) is the college's radio station. Each of these outlets is run by students for class credit in their respective departments.

On WCRX, Entertainment Primetime Weekly was the first show that featured entertainment news on radio. This format is now being used around the country, usually in the afternoon.[citation needed]

The students in the Journalism Department's Magazine Workshop class produces a magazine called Echo every semester.

[edit] Undergraduate degree majors

  • Acting (B.F.A.)
  • Advertising Art Direction (B.F.A.)
  • American Sign Language - English Interpretation (B.A.)
  • Art and Design (B.A.)
  • Art History (B.A., Minor)
  • Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management (B.A.)
  • Audio Arts & Acoustics (B.A.)
  • Cultural Studies (B.A.)
  • Dance (B.A., B.F.A.)
  • Digital Media Technology (B.A.)
  • Directing - Theater (B.F.A.)
  • Early Childhood Education (B.A.)
  • Fashion Design (B.F.A.)
  • Fiction Writing (B.A., B.F.A.)
  • Film/Video (B.A.)
  • Fine Arts (B.F.A.)
  • Graphic Design (B.F.A.)
  • Game Design (B.A.) (Concentrations in Development, Programming, Animation, and Sound Design)
  • Illustration (B.F.A.)
  • Instrumental Performance (B.A.)
  • Interactive Multimedia (B.A.)
  • Interior Architecture (B.F.A.)
  • Jazz Studies, Instrumental Performance (B.A.)
  • Jazz Studies, Vocal Performance (B.A.)
  • Journalism (B.A.)
  • Marketing Communication (B.A.)
  • Music Composition (B.A., B.M.)
  • Photography (B.A., B.F.A.)
  • Playwriting (B.A., B.F.A.)
  • Poetry (B.A.)
  • Product Design (B.F.A.)
  • Radio (B.A.)
  • Television (B.A.)
  • Theater (B.A.)
  • Vocal Performance (B.A.)

[edit] Minors

  • Acting
  • Animation (Computer/Traditional)
  • Art History
  • Arts Management
  • ASL Studies
  • Black World Studies
  • Creative Nonfiction
  • Dance
  • Directing
  • E-Commerce
  • Environmental Studies
  • Fiction Writing
  • Latino/Hispanic Studies
  • Literature
  • Marketing
  • Non-linear Editing
  • Photography
  • Playwriting
  • Poetry
  • Professional Writing
  • Publication Production
  • Web Technology
  • Women's Studies
  • Writing for Television

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] Notable faculty

[edit] External links

[edit] Official sites

[edit] Campus media

[edit] Other