• AFFORDABILITY OF HIGHER EDUCATION
• COLUMBIA'S COMMITMENT TO AFFORDABILITY
• CREATIVE CAPITAL
Creative Capital
Address To The Cosmopolitan Chamber Of Commerce
November, 2003
I want to share with you Columbia's educational philosophy and how it is producing the creative capital that is increasingly becoming the engine driving Chicago's business into the 21st Century and beyond.
First, let me share with you a bit of information about Columbia College Chicago and our unique role in the community....
We are the largest visual, performing and media arts college in the country, enrolling almost 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students. We employ 1,863 full- and part-time faculty and staff, almost all being working professionals who bring the real world into everything we do. We generate over $140 million in business annually in the Chicago metropolitan area. We are the largest landowner in Chicago's South Loop, with 15 buildings and more than 1.2 million square feet of real estate. More than 300,000 people attended Columbia College sponsored events last year at the Dance Center, Chicago Jazz Ensemble, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Center for Asian Arts and Media, International Latino Cultural Center and other Columbia presenting arts organizations.
We are proud that, unlike many institutions that admit only a small percentage of those who apply and are highly selective in their admissions processes, we provide opportunity and access for all. We maintain an open access policy because we believe that artistic and creative expression is not necessarily reflected in standardized test scores or in high-school grade point averages....
We believe that students flourish in a diverse environment where opportunities are afforded. We think our approach reflects what is inherently "right" about education in a democratic society. Not only is our approach right – ethically right – we believe that we are on the right track.
Students in our fiction-writing program, for instance, routinely "beat" competitors from Harvard, Princeton and Yale in literary competitions each year. Over the past 25 years, Columbia's fiction writing journal, Hair Trigger, has won 17 major awards, more than any other college in the nation. Three times, our students have swept the Traditional Fiction, Experimental Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction writing categories from the Scholastic Press Association, the most prestigious college writing competition in the country.
Do we think our student's success is as a result of our having the best faculty and curriculum of any other fiction-writing program in the country? Perhaps, but we suspect that it is more likely a result of the learning environment at Columbia College, where every classroom contains the promise and possibility of America. The best and the brightest students from the finest high schools in America sit side by side with those students who are initially unprepared for the challenges and demands of a rigorous academic and artistic environment. We have the highest percentages of minority enrollment of any private college in Illinois and, for that matter, any arts and media college in the country. Economic, social and cultural diversity in the classroom gives learning at Columbia College its greatest vitality. This is not only the Columbia College experience. It is the American experience.
To ensure our continued commitment to our mission and core values as an institution, we are launching the "Open Doors" scholarship initiative that is specifically geared to Chicago Public High School students. We have just begun an aggressive development effort to raise money to support the next generation of creative professionals from our community. Any student with an interest and ability in the special subjects we offer must be afforded the opportunity to attend Columbia College and contribute to the commonweal. While many people view higher education as a great social equalizer in this country, the arts and communications serve this purpose even more so. Artistic and creative expression is not the province of the privileged or the elites. Creativity and the arts belong to us all.
Which is just one reason why you should care about the future of Columbia College and why we think the African American business community should work with us to support this important objective.
But supporting the mission and vision of Columbia College goes beyond that. There is also an economic justification. The arts are big business – in the nation, in Chicago. Many of you in this room may be engaged in such enterprises.
You know that the economic impact of the arts industries in Illinois has doubled since 1996 and now represents a $2 billion annual contribution to the state's economy. A recent study released by the Illinois Arts Council has suggested that, between 1995 and 2002, despite a weakening of the general economy, the number of arts jobs in this state increased by 22 percent. In the most recent year for which data is available, more than $1.9 billion was spent on admissions to arts venues in this country – that's $400 million more than was spent on admissions to sports events in the same year.
What's good for the economy is good for all of us – and especially those of us here tonight, joined by a number of common bonds and seeking new opportunities.
Columbia College is also committed to the same values that our community shares.
In addition to the economic contributions that Columbia, as an arts and media education institution represents, you should know that, as a reflection of its commitment to opportunity and access, Columbia College Chicago is the most diverse arts and media education college in the nation. More than 35 percent of our students are persons of color. Our film department enrolls nearly as many African-American students as do all other film departments in arts colleges in the nation combined. Columbia College is in the business of providing opportunities for our young people to find their voices. We believe that our job is not just to train students for meaningful jobs; we must also educate students to assume significant roles in society. As a school specializing in the arts and communications, we want our students to engage society. We believe civic engagement is not an option. It is an obligation.
That's why our curriculum is built upon a comprehensive liberal arts platform. As educators, we believe that our students' destiny is to become authentic creators – creators of their culture, influencers of their society. We seek to prepare students broadly and foster their sense of public expression and civic commitment. That preparation must necessarily encompass a breadth of understanding about who we are by examining where we have come from. Our community represents the identities and traditions of every culture on the face of the planet. Our community of students, faculty, staff and alumni help to foster a greater understanding of what makes all of us special and unique and what binds us together as a society.
As members of the African-American business community, you have another stake in our enterprise at Columbia. Study after study has demonstrated that an education in the arts provides the best preparation for the workplace of tomorrow.
The Chicago Workforce Board, working with Mayor Daley's Council of Technology Advisors, has told us that the skills for success &ndash even in the tech industries – are not tech skills, but the skills of problem-solving, initiative, teamwork and the ability to see problems from multiple perspectives. These are the skills that students in arts and communication disciplines acquire inside and outside the classroom at Columbia.
Today – and even more so tomorrow ‐ jobs will reflect the convergence of disciplines, of technologies, of skills, of human capital. Ten years ago, telecommunications had already converged with computing in the Internet. Journalism and marketing had come together in new forms of infotainment that today affect how we get our news and how we experience entertainment. Education and entertainment enterprises have converged to create edutainment delivery systems. The big studios have become engaged, not only in producing the product, but also in distributing it through an array of new venues and ventures, down to palm-sized viewers that also display your e-mail and stock market updates.
According to Paul O'Connor from World Business Chicago, what ultimately persuaded the Boeing Corporation to relocate its corporate headquarters in Chicago was the wealth of creative capital in our community from which the business of tomorrow can draw from. Our workforce possesses the intellectual capital and resources to be able to anticipate change and respond accordingly. These are the fundamental building blocks we provide our students, and why our students are in high demand when they enter the creative professions. A Columbia College intern or graduate does not need on-the-job training. We produce students who hit the ground running and never stop.
At Columbia, we are proud that our curricular boundaries are blurred by the overlap of departments' evolving explorations. Our programs, increasingly interdisciplinary and grounded in liberal arts, recognize and celebrate the convergence of disciplines and the implosion of traditional structures.
So, I want to close tonight, thanking you for your gracious invitation to have me speak here, but also proud of the role that my institution plays in the social, cultural and economic life of the community. We hope you will join Columbia College in helping to pave the way for the next generation of creative professionals from our community to make their mark on the world. When you support Columbia, you are supporting the future of our community and the future of our great city.
