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Decoding the male G-spot
What your condom says about you
13
SPRING 2015
WEEKS LEFT
No. 1 Non-Daily College Newspaper in the Nation MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2015
THE OFFICIAL NEWS SOURCE OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE CHICAGO
VOLUME 50, ISSUE 18
Tuition, health fees rise, enrollment decreases Campus Reporter ENROLLMENT KEEPS FALLING, but
tuition keeps increasing—fulltime Columbia students will be expected to pay $756 more for tuition costs during the 2015–2016 academic year. During a Dec. 9 meeting, the college’s Board of Trustees voted in favor of a 3.3 percent tuition increase, raising total full-time tuition prices from $22,884 to $23,640, President Kwang-Wu Kim announced in a Feb. 3 collegewide email. This is the second consecutive year that tuition increased at this rate, making it the secondlowest tuition increase in the last decade. Despite the tuition cost, most student fees will hold steady with the exception of student health and U-pass fees, which will increase by $20 and $2 respectively. Next year’s tuition increase is a result of increasing yearly costs as well as a decline in enrollment, said Stan Wearden, senior vice president and provost. The administration understands the financial strain college can cause and is doing everything it can
$18,490
$19,140
$20,094
Year ‘09–’10
‘10–’11
‘11–’12
to make tuition as affordable as possible, Wearden said, which includes dipping deeper into the college’s operating budget to provide more scholarship money. “The college has had to pull back on a number of other issues as we made it a priority to address student affordability,” said Mark Kelly, Vice President of Student Success.
+$756 $21,200
‘12–’13
Since fiscal year 2011, the college has increased its total unrestricted institutional aid from $16.9 million to $38 million, which is “well over a 100 percent increase,” Kelly said. Additionally, 72.6 percent of Columbia freshmen currently receive scholarship money from the school, a 28.7 percent increase from 2010. The total percentage of
$22,132
‘13–’14
$22,884
‘14–’15
undergraduates receiving scholarships has increased from 24.4 percent in 2010 to 48.3 percent this year. Kelly presented this information to the college’s Student Government Association during its Feb. 3 meeting. According to Kim, a number of factors determine tuition rates, including enrollment numbers, financial aid commitments to continuing
$23,640
‘15–’16
Colin King THE CHRONICLE Information Courtesy Cara Birch, Public Relations
Columbia TUITION INCRE ASE
SAM VINTON
students, the college’s dependence on tuition and trying to keep tuition lower than the national average. “It’s a careful, thoughtful decision, and at all points everyone involved is talking about affordability and [the] impact on students and trying to do the best we can,” Kim said.
xx SEE TUITION, PG. 9
Industry Events out, Portfolio Day in College redefines networking events JACOB WITTICH Campus Editor INDUSTRY EVENTS, THE college’s annual series of networking events geared toward introducing graduating seniors to industry professionals, has seen its last day. In its place, Columbia is set to debut Portfolio Day, an event that will give students time to review portfolios with professionals, on April 30. Instead of several events occurring over the course of several weeks like Industry Events, Portfolio Day will only occur once per academic year. “Portfolio Day is a way for us to better support students toward their goals of employability and career outcomes and also find a
more efficient way to bring professionals on campus to have quality interactions with our students,” said Dirk Matthews, associate director of the Portfolio Center. Industry Events were considered successful—last year’s series connected 700 professionals with 700 students—but feedback from professionals attending the events suggested students were not properly prepared for the opportunity. According to Matthews, many industry professionals wished students would have come better prepared with completed portfolios and resumes. “Professionals were frequently frustrated because they wanted to see more student work and there wasn’t really a way to actually look
Re-designing the Art + Design Department • PAGE 3
Hashtagging sexism • PAGE 11
at students’ work,” Matthews said. To ensure students are more prepared prior to interacting with professionals, it is mandatory for students to attend a Portfolio Day Information Session—running from now through March 11—and follow an application and review process that includes developing a portfolio and resume in order to attend, according to Christie Andersen Asif, executive director of Career Initiatives at the Portfolio Center. “Some events were more like cocktail parties, but in the end, both students and employers found them not terribly productive,” said Mark Kelly, vice president of Student Success. “Now it’s going to be very much centered on students’ work. Students have to be ready, and we
Courtesy RADIO DEPARTMENT Industry Nights, a series of events that connected graduating students with working professionals, has been condensed into a single Portfolio Day event.
can in turn raise expectations for our employers’ creative industries.” Industry Events were organized by major, and each event was restricted to students within that department, but feedback from industry professionals suggested they did not want to attend multiple events at the college to meet with students, according to Matthews. “Industry Events were very inefficient for creative industry
Arm ‘rasslin’ ladies of Chicago • PAGE 20
professionals because the creative industries work from a much more interdisciplinary perspective than a lot of the academic departments do,” Matthews said. Professionals would attend Industry Night for the department that most closely corresponded to their industry, and they would have to additionally attend multiple
xx SEE PORTFOLIO, PG. 9
Willie Wilson’s controversial bid for mayor • PAGE 35 T HE COLUMBIA C HRONICLE