Teen pregnancy rates hit a 15 year high
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THE COLUMBIA
The Official News Source of Columbia College Chicago
October 26, 2009
Volume 45 Number 8
» PAGE 34
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Fashion program finds a home Columbia’s School of Fine and Performing Arts plans fashion studies department
by Ciara Shook Assistant Campus Editor
Lenny Gilmore THE CHRONICLE Dresses are part of the fashion collection on the eighth floor of the 618 S. Michigan Ave. Building. The Fashion Studies Department is expected to be up and running within three years.
ALMOST 1,000 fashion students attend Columbia and even more alumni have influenced fashion in the U.S. and abroad. The college is recognized as a beacon of fashion studies in the Midwest. The only problem is that fashion majors don’t have a real home. Students now enrolled in the Art & Design and Arts, Entertainment and Media Management departments comprise the largest fashion program in the Midwest. Eliza Nichols, dean of the school of Fine and Performing Arts, said that they want to bring students from the Art & Design and AEMM departments together to form a freestanding Department of Fashion Studies. “There has been some thought of this before,” said Dennis Brozynski, associate professor of Art & Design. “We started the curriculum 20 years ago in fashion design and Dianne Erpenbach and myself had a vision some time ago about combining the two programs.” Nichols said the number of students in the fashion design major and Arts, Entertainment and Media Management students with a fashion or retail management concentration is more than 900, which is more than the enrollment of the Theater and Marketing Communications departments. “It’s kind of a no-brainer,” Nichols said.
“In terms of Columbia, this is a good thing because we should be known nationally for our fashion studies. People think we are the equivalent of the [School of the] Art Institute. They have 150 students studying fashion—why are they always talked about?” According to Nichols, there are roughly 125 fashion students for every full-time faculty member teaching fashion courses at Columbia. “We have no central office for people to come to,” Nichols said. “They have to figure out where to go and it’s not always that clear.” Nichols said the Art & Design and AEMM programs are doing as good of a job as they can to focus on the fashion design and fashion-retail management students, but being respectively the second and third largest departments at Columbia, students of all three departments will get more attention once the Fashion Studies department is underway. “The department is going to be focused on the needs of the students who are interested in fashion,” Nichols said. “Right now, they’re just part of a larger system.” Fashion studies is in its infancy as Nichols and faculty from both areas search for a department chair and consider new degree options and opportunities to offer students. Nichols said while Art & Design and AEMM bring in different guest speakers, they are focused around arts management and art and design. » SEE FASHION, PG.7
Sustainable floor earns college LEED certification Assistant Campus Editor
CAMPUS
A RECENT renovation of the 33 E. Congress Parkway Building’s fifth floor has earned the college its first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. LEED is a rating system awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council. Buildings are recognized when they meet the standards set by the council to ensure that the construction process was done in an environmentally sustainable manner.
Columbia’s history revisited » SEE PG. 3
of the assignments they have taken on in the past have been green projects. Due to Gensler and Columbia’s ongoing relationship, the company was eager to work on the assignment. According to Feola, the project included a nearly full renovation of the entire 20,000 squarefoot space, installation of a green roof, dual-flush toilets and use of recyclable materials. Gensler also encouraged those involved to ride bicycles or use public transportation by restricting of any parking spaces throughout the construction. “Most of the material on the project was able to be recycled, which is a huge deal,” Feola said. » SEE LEED, PG. 6
Lenny Gilmore THE CHRONICLE The fifth floor of the 33 E. Congress Parkway Building has earned LEED certification for its environmentally friendly renovation.
INDEX
Fire burn CAMPUS Chivas USA
Enviromentally friendly funerals
» SEE PG. 29
H&F
by Laura Nalin
The college’s original goal was to meet the requirements for basic certification. However, when it teamed up with Gensler, an international architectural interiors company that works closely with Columbia, the school was granted a silver award, which exceeded its expectations. Gensler has worked on various projects with the college throughout the years, including the Ferguson Lecture Hall, located in the Alexandroff Campus Center, 600 S. Michigan Ave., the 618 S. Michigan Ave. Building, and the ninth floor of the South Campus Building, 623 S. Wabash Ave. Although the company doesn’t always work on environmentally sustainable projects, Lindsey Feola, Gensler’s architectural designer for the project, said the majority
COMMENTARY
Building renovation at 33 E. Congress wins environmental award
» SEE PG. 9
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