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COLUMBIA COLLEGE CHICAGO VOLUME 32, NUMBER 28 WWW.CCCHRONICLE.COM JUNE t. 1999 CAMPUS VITALITY SPORTS College an active CUMA spins urban NFL drafl gives Bears a player in South Loop music at conference new hope rebirth College discusses new plans for expansion By J otbam Sederstrom Sherwood Conservatory of Staff Writer Music at 1014 S. Michigan. In addition, the newly pur­ In a public forum Thursday, chased 33 E. Congress building Provost and Executive Vice which, until last week, was being President, Bert Gall, emphasized leased, wi ll make room for some the significance of shaping an of the faci lities currently at 624 identity within Columbia's facili­ S. Wabash. Plans for an art ties and the "absolute and singu­ gallery where a holiday supply lar notion of an store was once urban campus in housed are also higher education." being considered. Along with "We're playing Gall, Jim catch-up," said Preachered of Gall. "We're trying Loeb!, Schlossman to make additional & Hackl, an archi­ space for those tectural firm, spoke areas most to more than I 00 pressed." faculty members Preachered rec­ and students at the ommended the con­ Hokin Hall about cept of "Centers of recent acquisitions Excellence," for at Columbia and each major. The recommendations Ludington build­ By Bruno VanderVelde for the college's ing, for example, Editor·in·Chief Other tenants in the building, like MacCormac future. wi ll soon house all College, will remain there until their leases expire, Columbia's of Columbia's film In a not too surprising move, Columbia has a press release quoted Provost/Executive Vice recent throng of facilitie s. purchased the building at 33 E. Congress, further President Bert Gall as saying. land acquisitions According to expanding its property ownership in the South was central to forming a propos­ Preachered, unifying resources According to the press release, the college now al for the college's future. Loop. The price was $6.3 million. for indi vidual departments would owns nearly 1.3 mi llion square feet of space in "Lately we've been in the busi­ embrace the notion of communi­ Since 1997, the college had been leasing eleven buildings in the South Loop area. ness section in the newspapers as ty within the school. 75,000 square feet on several fl oors in the seven­ The Congress building was designed in I 925 much as the arts section," said "The college can no longer story building on the southwest comer of Wabash by Alfred Alshuler, the same architect who Gall, commenting on the recently afford to have a number of build­ and Congress. The building currently houses designed the Torco building at 624 S. Michigan. donated Buddy Guy property, the ings that are anonymous on the Columbia's Radio/Sound, English, and There is no word yet as to what the college Ludington building at 1104 S. inside," said Gall. Educational Studies departments. plans to do with the building. Wabash, and the former See Plan, page 3 Product Design major mixes technology, creativity, practicality By Bruno Va nderVelde have no idea whether it will work Editor-in-Chief or not." The product design program Columbia's reputation for combining creativity with was conceptualized three years practicality received another boost of credibility this year ago, Henry said. It wasn't unti l last with the addition of the Product Design major in the Art year that the program was actually and Design department. This unique curriculum offers created, the first two years being students the chance to design real, working products­ spent on exhaustive research everything from toys to machinery to furniture- on some regarding the types of computers of the most sophisticated computer software available. and software that were needed. From these computer-assisted designs, the students then "The technology," Henry said, construct working prototypes of the products. · "was the biggest issue." Currently, The ideal end result, according to Product Design coor­ Columbia's computers in this field dinator Kevin Henry, would be to manufacture these prod­ are state-of-the-art, rivaling the ucts on a large scale for a mass market. technology and similar programs Initially, the students at the beginning of each new pro­ already in place at the University ject must venture out and do their homework, researching of Illinois at Chicago and the and meeting with "potential end-users." Most of these Illinois Institute of Technology. would-be users, said Henry, "have needs that haven't been So what do they call the place met yet." on the eighth floor in the Wabash One example was a recent project in which students bui lding where these students do designed specially-made cups for people whose arthritis their wor.k? A lab? A studio? prevented them from gripping a conventional container. Neither of these names necessarily The students designed the cup on a computer and then apply. For "creative inventors" made the prototypes using polyurethane foam. like these, Henry said, it's a Another recent project the students have worked on "model shop." was an interdisciplinary effort with Columbia's Early Henry said that one of the Childhood Education department. focuses of the product design course is on entrepreneurial have in-house designers, and even then, they hire design A learning device that doubled as a toy was needed, so skills. Many people haven't the forti tude to be entrepre­ consultants to come in and work on special projects, students set out to observe members of their target audi­ neurs in these days of corporate congealing. ''People are Henry said . ence--three- to five-year-olds. After checking toy stores often scared away from that aspect of it," said Henry. The product design classes' final project fo r the semes­ and catalogs for further creative (and practical) inspira­ More importantly, he said, "People in this field need to ter is a water toy that teaches children about numbers in tion, the students came back and designed a puzzle game. understand a lot more than they used to [have to]." He terms of volume. "It's a fun project," said Henry. After four iterations and some color studies, they let the noted that in th is field, it's often the independent design­ The Product Design department is hosting a Chicago children loose on the new toys and videotaped the results. ers and manufacturers that generally come away the most Chapter meeting of the Industrial Design Society of Students from both departments watched the videos, successful. America on June 8 at 6 p.m. in room 803, Wabash Bldg. much like a test market trial. The results were "very After graduation, students can apply what they've Two entrepreneur designers will discuss case studies. revealing," Henry said. "Until you embody a concept, you learned in a variety of places. Most major corporations f:l COLUMBIA CHRONI~L£ JUNE 1 1999 .....T .ir. .f.... f.a.s.t ....f .o.o.d? Fly Home. Mom's sure to make your favorite for dinner. ' ' COLLEGE HOTLINE t~ .a . a. a. ~. 4. 1t~2F. LY.......... ·.... ,....... .. • Minn./St. Paul from $59 • Dallas/Ft. Worth from $69 • Atlanta from $79 • Kansas City from $29 • Denver from $79 • Pittsburgh from $49 • Myrtle Beac~ from $99 • Restrictions apply. Prices include $2 per segment FET. 21 -day advance purchase required . Fares are non-refundable. Blackout dates apply. www. flyv anguard.com Seats are limited and may not be available on all flights . Prices are subject to change and do not include PFC's of up to $12 round trip. Open 24 H -ou~s ~-- Day More circuitous routings will require additional per segment charges. ....................................... :J.. l!'::'.~.. .~ .!... ~.. ~.~~ ---·-- Issues and events you should know about CAMPUS NEWS c on this semester's last, albeit short, sheet... On Campus b According loa college memo, there will be free Internet email Plan accounts for full-time students in the fall. The college had been continued from front page bela-testing the software with student employees for the past sever­ e al weeks. A premier video exhibition of individual work produced by ad vanced level lelev.ision department students in the Experimental a Video Production class, " Better Than a Ham Sandwich," will be presented in the Hokin Auditorium in the Wabash Bldg. on Sal., t June 5 at 3 p.m. For more information, call ext. 7203. Poet C harles Wright, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his poetry collection, "Black Zodiac," will speak and read from his work Thurs., June 3 at 3 p.m. in the Ferguson Theater, 600 S. Michigan. Wright is currently an English professor al the University of Virginia. The reading is free and open to the public. For more s information, call ext. 8100. Columbia's IJiack Student Union is having its end-of-year barbecue Friday, June 4 in Grant l'ark from 5 p.m.