Architects weigh in on student center design PAGE 30
ColumbiaChronicle.com
PAGE 33
22 2016
Students stand up, demand their MAP
» andrea salcedo llaurado CAMPUS REPORTER
“HEAR OUR CHATTER! MAP matters!” “Money
» LOU FOGLIA/CHRONICLE Students Amanda Hamrick (left)and Cameron Hubert (right) represented the college’s Student Government Associaton and briefly led the crowd outside the Thompson Center Feb. 16.
doesn’t grow on trees, sign SB2043!” “Rauner, don’t be a downer! Sign SB2043!” Chanting slogans loudly, a group of students from more than 10 Chicago area colleges, including six Columbia students, stood outside the Thompson Center, 100 W. Randolph St., Feb. 16 protesting Illinois’ unfulfilled promise of distributing Monetary Award Program grants. The crowd, estimated at more than 100 students, some of them holding signs saying, “I am MAP,” and “Hear me. Fund Me,” gathered to demand Gov. Bruce Rauner sign a bill focused on releasing stalled MAP grants. The grants are funds that do not have to be repaid and are awarded to Illinois residents who attend approved Illinois colleges and demonstrate financial need. Illinois has been operating without a functional budget since July 1, 2015, jeopardizing
the college education of thousands of students across the state, including more than 1,800 Columbia students who receive the grant aid, as reported Oct. 5, 2015, by The Chronicle. The General Assembly passed the bill, which has yet to be signed by Rauner who has vowed to veto it. “[Do] you think you work hard enough? Do you deserve this [educational] right? Do you deserve this privilege?” cried Amanda Hamrick, interactive arts & media junior and vice president of Columbia’s Student Government Association, as she stood in the middle of the crowd of students with a megaphone to voice her opinions. On Feb. 9, a week before the rally, which was attended by students from such other schools as DePaul University, Loyola University and Dominica University, President and CEO Kwang-Wu Kim announced during an SGA meeting that the college will advance the MAP grant funds in an effort to protect students.
SEE MAP, PAGE 9
Volume 51, Issue 20
Sanders and Clinton bring campaigns to Chicago
Feb.
Student center envisioned as a place of ‘inclusion’ CAMPUS EDITOR
board of trustees say they are making headway on delivering on the college’s promise to build a fully functional student center capable of providing a central location to gather and collaborate by the Fall 2018 Semester. Plans and concepts for the new fourstory student center were presented to the college’s Student Government Association Feb. 16 by the Chicago-based architecture firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz following the firm’s 11-week planning process. The four-story center will be a space of “inclusion” for students to “gather, collaborate and explore,” according to SCB’s program mission statement. Ted Strand, principal of SCB, praised the collegewide involvement in the phase. COLUMBIA’S ADMINISTRATION AND
“Most of the time, when we go onto a campus, [the planning process] is a very top-down decision,” Strand said. “That was not the case here at Columbia.” Some highlights of the plan include a larger fitness center, a dining hall, various study rooms and lounge areas, a large multipurpose room for events and a floor designated for collaboration and career support. “[We needed] to create a space that helped advance the experience of being a student at Columbia,” said President and CEO Kwang-Wu Kim, who was on hand for the presentation. “Not just a fun building or recreation center, but something unique to Columbia.” Kim said the center will cost an estimated $35 million to $45 million, which could not possibly be supported by the college’s current operating budget.
SEE CENTER, PAGE 10
» lauren kostiuk
» SANTIAGO COVARRUBIAS/CHRONICLE President and CEO Kwang-Wu Kim discussed with the college’s Student Government Association his personal vision of the student center, scheduled for completion by the Fall 2018 Semester.