A ‘super’ opening day
University Center to serve as a model for other cities

A slew of university bigwigs, as well as Chicago Mayor, Richard M. Daley, were on hand to celebrate the grand opening of the University Center of Chicago or “Superdorm” the loop’s newest residential high-rise Thursday, Aug. 12.

The much anticipated, 1,700 bed, multi-school dormitory is set to accept its first residents this month, and VIP’s from Roosevelt and DePaul universities, and Columbia opened the doors in ceremonial fashion.
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Life in the ‘Superdorm’
Advisers work to build community from three schools

Attending college in Chicago can be a financial burden for some students. With tuition, housing and living expenses, bills can pile up, but Emily Eskridge, a cultural studies major at Columbia, found a way to lighten the load.

Eskridge found a way to get room and board in the Loop’s newest, most exclusive building. Eskridge is a resident adviser at the University Center of Chicago, but she is quick to point out that she doesn’t get a free ride.
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In an effort to revitalize Columbia's "frumpy" buildings, school officials announced July 30 their plans for a $1.2 million project aimed at bringing unity to 100,000 square feet of campus hallways.

Dubbed the "corridor blitz," Alicia Berg, vice president of campus environment, said the project is a small step toward creating a coherent campus environment.
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Weekend demolition removes a piece of history
Historic sign became safety hazard

The building at 624 S. Michigan Ave. looks a little less recognizable today. Demolition crews took the historic Torco sign off the building in the wee hours of the morning , Sunday July 18.

According to Mike Debish, vice president of facilities and operations at Columbia, the sign had to be removed because four years of disrepair made it a safety hazard. The yellow and white sign has not been lit in years
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Click here to view the photo slide show of the Torco sign removal.

Click below to view the video of the Torco sign removal, by Andrew J. Scott and Carrie Bergagna.
Full Size (27mb) - Small (15mb) - XSmall (8mb)

Xerox takes over Columbia's copiers
Copier World ousted after 21 years

Last year the fiction writers at Columbia began work on a rather unorthodox story filled with drama, heartache and blood. The story was a bit out of character for fiction writers because it was not fiction. These writers took on the true story of “Bartleby,” the Fiction Writing Department's malicious photocopier.

Department aides logged all of the ills that “Bartleby” put them through. Sometimes the log was a ghost story, with tales of phantom copies spouting from the machine; sometimes it was gory, telling of a copier intent on drawing blood from unsuspecting fingers. But now the story has an end.
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SDI loses job security
New company provides better employee screening

Columbia students accustomed to seeing SDI security guards protecting the school's lobbies and shooing away vagrants around campus will be in for a surprise when they return this fall. School officials are ending an 11-year contract with SDI security, citing a need for a “higher quality security program” at Columbia.

According to Martha Meegan, director of campus safety, Columbia has signed a two-year contract with Wackenhut security worth more than $1 million. The company will take over security operation on July 19.
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Columbia’s Cattle Call
Film students get a chance to be on the big screen

Holy Hollywood movie, Batman!

The latest installment of the Batman series, tentatively titled Batman Begins, is coming to Chicago. And Columbia students got the first call, the first casting call, that is.

Joan Philo, an independent extras casting director, held a casting call for nonspeaking extras on June 24, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in Room 502 in the 1104 Center, 1104 S. Wabash Ave.
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Clearing the air underground
Café can serve as unofficial student center

The gray clouds of tobacco smoke that hang in the basement of the Alexandroff Campus Building, 600 S. Michigan Ave., will soon be cleared, or at least contained, thanks some new construction in the building.

The Underground Café, one of the last official indoor smoking areas on Columbia's campus, housed in the basement of the school's flagship building, is undergoing a lung friendly redesign this summer.
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Fate of Byrd Academy up in the air
Closing date could eliminate students from Magnet Program deadlines

The doors of Richard E. Byrd Community Academy, 363 W. Hill St., are closed for the summer. But if CEO of Chicago Public Schools Arne Duncan has his way, the doors will be closed permanently.

On June 16, a public hearing regarding the proposal to close Byrd Academy—held at Chicago Public Schools Board of Education Chambers, 125 S. Clark St.—drew more than 100 parents, teachers, community members and students for a final plea to save their school.
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Making a 'Dent' in Sports Management

Richard Dent, the 1985 Superbowl MVP, is championing a Columbia initiative to reinvent sports management.  Dent teamed his Make-a-Dent Foundation with Columbia's newly formed Sports Management Program in the Arts, Entertainment & Media Management Department by offering scholarships.

Two students, Monica Dixon and Chuang Hui Tu received $2,500 scholarships from the Make-a-Dent Foundation at its 2004 Charity Bash May 26 held at the Cadillac Room in Soldier Field.
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Rain forecasts don't dampen end-of-year festival
Manifest adds to Columbia's community atmosphere, organizers say

The forecast called for severe afternoon thunderstorms May 27, but no amount of gloomy weather could put a damper on the third annual Manifest urban arts festival.

“It's not going to rain,” said Mark Kelly, vice president of Student Affairs “We are blessed.”

But even if drops started to fall, the weather wouldn't influence the spirit of the festival, Kelly said.
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Periwinkle paint spreads image of Columbia campus
Student Center, Torco sign removal still on tap

It’s hard to miss. The new periwinkle paint job on the front of 619 S. Wabash Ave., the former Universal Bowling building that Columbia purchased last year, is only one change slated by school administration to make Columbia’s campus “more recognizable” in the South Loop, a school official told The Chronicle.

According to Alicia Berg, vice president of campus environment, students can expect several modest changes to the campus’ exterior by the fall, including street banners and large displays of student artwork on the side of some school buildings.
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Students tackle Olympian project
Video tour of historic Athens to become permanent fixture at museum

In celebration of the 2004 Olympics returning to Athens this summer, six seniors in Columbia’s Interactive Multimedia Department decided to give historical tours of the cradle of civilization—and they aren’t kidding when they say historical.

As part of the exhibit “Olympic Games: Then and Now” at Chicago’s Hellenic Museum, 801 W. Adams St., seniors Beth Keller, Claudia Tin, Art Lisserman, Cieana Miller, Steve Szydelko and Lisa Wilson, guided by instructor Joe Cancellaro, developed a computer program that offers audiences a walking tour of Olympia, circa 776 B.C. it allows viewers to explore temples, altars and artifacts, including the Temple and Altar of Zeus and the Eternal Flame of Hestia.
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Major in Art History near
B.A. program said to be ‘unique’ from others

Believe it or not, Columbia will soon offer a major for art students interested more in the past than in drawing or painting.

Next semester, the Art and Design Department will offer a major and a minor in art history, the first of its kind at Columbia. The new program, which has been in the works for almost four years, will allow art history courses, to serve as a focus instead of acting as a service to the rest of the Art and Design Department.
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United Staff still gaining support
Group says a union will benefit students

After almost a year of organizing, the United Staff of Columbia College is ready to introduce itself to others at the college. The organization invited people at the school to learn about it on May 10 and May 14, the first of their “get to know US” events.

The staff union initiative at Columbia has been moving forward since a pension freeze and the reorganizing of departments, which led to job cuts last year. Organizing members of US of CC are attempting to raise awareness about what they see as a changing atmosphere at Columbia.
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Former student tees up a winner
Marketing career dropped to co-create nationally popular golf video game

Who said playing video games is a waste of time? For one Columbia student, it turned into a career.
Today, Jim Zielinski is the senior game designer at Incredible Technologies, a $65 million company based in Arlington Heights, a Northwest suburb.

Since joining the staff in 1988, Zielinski has designed more than 50 virtual golf courses, including the very popular Golden Tee Fore, a golf game he co-created with Larry Hodgson, the main programmer at Incredible Technologies.
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The way it was:
The Chronicle year in review

Marking a continued evolution from a small speech college to the “nation’s premier arts and communication college,” Columbia made continued steps to expand its South Loop campus, saw an unprecedented move to hold next year’s tuition charges and experienced a major shakeup in its administrative staffing during the nine months of the 2004 academic year, which ends May 29.

The year saw the college take major steps in the implementation of the “Columbia 2010” plan, a comprehensive map to turn Columbia into “the best student-centered arts and media college in the world” within the next six years. Several of the proposed steps have already been taken.
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Colleges respond to recent suicides with increased counseling
90 percent of suicide victims have mental illness

Melissia Page is facing some stressful issues at Columbia. One of her biggest concerns, for example, is getting enough financial aid to cover the cost of tuition.

“I worry about how I am going to pay for classes because I have used up my subsidized loans,” she said. “My part-time job is not going to be enough.”
Because of health problems, Page has had to miss class, in turn affecting her financial aid package.
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Making a world of difference

Some magazines do news. Others do fashion, fun or travel. Others, gossip, entertainment or sports. But how about one that’s “like having hundreds of grandmothers around”?

A Seattle couple says that’s one way to view The Frugal Environmentalist, a quarterly magazine (well, stapled newsletter) that explores Earth-friendly ways of doing things without spending a lot of money.
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‘I’m representing for the gangstas all across the world’
Actor Ben Stein passes out more than money

(U-WIRE) COLUMBUS, Ohio—Other than his strong Republican political views, Ben Stein had another motivation for speaking at the Ohio Union May 17.

“I’m representing for the gangstas all across the world,” Stein said.
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