Library of Congress Scope Note

founded in 1890 as the Columbia School of Oratory by Mary A. Blood and Ida Morey Riley; school changed its name to the Columbia College of Expression in 1904; changed its name to Columbia College in 1944

Historical Note

Columbia College Chicago has remained a leader in creative arts and communications education since opening its doors near the heart of the city over one hundred and twenty years ago. Founded in 1890 as a school of oratory to teach public speaking to men and women, Columbia soon adapted its mission to the new century's rapidly-changing communications technologies. The school's "modernizing" direction was inaugurated by Norman Alexandroff, and carried on by his son, Mirron "Mike", who succeeded his father as school president. In 1964, Columbia emerged as a highly diversified and co-educational institution of higher learning, providing comprehensive training and practical opportunities in the arts, communications, and public information. From its birth to the present day, Columbia College Chicago has prided itself on its enlightened liberalism within the context of excellence and high expectation.

The Columbia School of Oratory was established in 1890 by Mary Blood and Ida Morey Riley, both graduates of what is now Emerson College, Boston, Massachusetts to teach oratory, physical culture, voice culture, elocution, public school reading, dramatic action, visible speech, literature, and English, using the Emerson principles. This was based on three basic methods: stimulating the "cause" (freeing the voice and body from habit to make them responsive agents of the mind); developing the organic means (performing exercises for voice, action, and interpretation to develop a mastery of essential forms of experience and corresponding actions for communication); and securing a better knowledge of the right modes of execution (such as proper posture, breathing, and articulation). Anticipating a strong need for public speaking at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, celebrating the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World, Blood and Riley were inspired to open their school in the exposition city, Chicago, and adopt the exposition's name.

Secular and coeducational from the start, Columbia was influenced by Blood's religious convictions to concern itself with the students' moral character along with their physical and mental development. Applicants were, in fact, required to provide satisfactory evidence thereof. The school offered Bible reading classes and strongly encouraged weekly church attendance in promotion of a "sterling Christian character." The Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), headquartered in Evanston, endorsed the Columbia School of Oratory as a central training school for temperance workers. Even though this ideological foundation has largely changed, the school's motto of esse quam videri ("to be rather than to seem"), and its philosophies of "learn to do by doing" and "theory never made an artist" remain as vital today as they were well over a century ago.

Bachelor's as well as master's degrees, in addition to two year diplomas, have been offered almost from the school's founding. Early on, enrollment included a large percentage of students-at-large as well as correspondence course students. Nine diplomas were conferred at the first graduation ceremony in 1892. Columbia's recognition by the Illinois State Examining Board qualified its graduates to teach English, vocal expression, and physical training in Illinois without specific state certification.

After Riley died unexpectedly in 1901, school officials moved to incorporate the college on May 5, 1905 as Columbia College of Expression. Despite this precaution, both the president and the vice-president of the board of directors passed away during the first half of 1927, followed by Blood's sudden death that July. Within two months the College had relocated to the facilities of the Pestalozzi Froebel Teachers College (PFTC) and took in students there for the fall term. On April 30, 1928, the school was chartered anew with the state by longtime faculty and board member George Scherger, Herman Hofer Hegner of PFTC, and his wife, Irma Rowe Hegner, with the object of "the teaching of expression in speech and otherwise, and allied subjects, and the granting of degrees for study therein." The 1928-1929 catalog names PFTC as a "sister institution" and lists Scherger as Columbia president and board member. Bertha Hofer Hegner, the founder and president of PFTC, also appears as a member of the board, and Herman Hofer Hegner, her son, is school registrar and faculty member. Both Hegners would serve as Columbia presidents after Scherger's 1929 resignation, a move prompted by his call to become a full time pastor. Columbia and PFTC would retain their close affiliation until 1963, sharing administration, employees, curriculum, facilities, and two relocations.

The college's early curricula answered the communication needs of an era dominated by the pulpit, the lecture platform, the Chautauqua circuit, and the stage. However, revolutionary changes in communications before mid-century, including radio, sound motion pictures, and later, television, demanded curricular response. In 1934, Herman Hofer Hegner, by now acting president, recruited lecture circuit veteran and radio producer Norman Alexandroff to establish instruction in radio. By 1937, Alexandroff had become vice president of the college and was a member of both its and PFTC's board of directors, along with Herman Hofer Hegner, and their wives. Together, Alexandroff and Hegner produced a study demonstrating that children were absorbed equally by educational radio programming and action/adventure programming, provided that the former was presented at the same dramatic tempo as the latter. The study also showed that children learn almost exclusively through dramatic impulses, and brought national attention to both Columbia and PFTC.

In 1944, Columbia became a separate institution from PFTC, with Alexandroff as its board-appointed president. The various forms of name that had appeared in college publications throughout the 1930s were replaced by, simply, Columbia College. Columbia was certified by the Illinois State Examining Board for Teacher Education, which qualified the school to enroll G.I. Bill veterans. In 1944, Alexandroff co-authored The Occupational and Educational Adjustment of Veterans, a pioneering study on the effects of war on returning veterans. Consequently, the college was designated as one of fifteen Veterans Guidance Centers in the United States, and made available to World War Two veterans free comprehensive testing, educational and occupational counseling, and psychological services. When television was added to the curriculum in the following year, the school's combined emphasis on broadcast media made it a popular option for returning veterans, and at the same time, shifted the student body to a largely male population.

During the 1950s, Alexandroff relocated to California to found Columbia College Los Angeles and Columbia College Pan-Americano in Mexico City. Both of these institutions became fully independent of their Chicago parent by the end of the decade. Although Alexandroff remained president until his death in 1960, he left the Chicago operations under the de facto direction of his son, Mike. Throughout this time, the college's fortunes relied heavily on the G.I. Bills from World War Two and the Korean War, but by 1961, when the younger Alexandroff became president, most of this funding was gone and enrollment had plummeted. Hegner, in response to Columbia’s precarious situation, notified Alexandroff that PFTC would separate from Columbia at the end of 1963 and relocate to a new campus. All jointly-shared staff, equipment, and curricula would accompany PFTC, leaving Columbia with few possessions, a reduced staff, limited curriculum, too much physical space, and an unsustainable business model. Ironically, while Columbia would go on to thrive, PFTC was wholly absorbed by the National College of Education in 1971, which through a subsequent merger became part of National Louis University.

This separation crisis precipitated the creation of the modern Columbia. Upon securing new property, Alexandroff's first priority became full undergraduate accreditation, which was achieved in 1974. Full graduate accreditation came in 1984. Accordingly, the school lost its resemblance to a trade school, while creating a program focused on the public arts and communication media within the format of a liberal arts education, encouraging students to discover and integrate the two fields of study. The college was a pioneer in combining vocational preparation in the arts within a liberal arts framework and in offering a hands-on learning experience under the guidance of recognized practitioners. This redefinition of the college's mission established the expectation that Columbia students can articulate contemporary issues insightfully and author the culture of their times. Likewise, the college affirmed its commitment to noncompetitive admissions and its view of the city-as-campus.

Success was immediate, marked by a tenfold rise in enrollment between 1964 and 1974, a figure that would triple by the decade's end. Space, once at a surplus, was now becoming critically tight, leading the college to purchase its first building and establish a permanent campus in Chicago's South Loop. The school determined to remain downtown and adhere to its history as, in Alexandroff's words, a vertical "sidewalk college." After a search of several years, the college purchased the 600 South Michigan Avenue building in October 1975. Classes commenced at that location early in 1977. By the time of Alexandroff's retirement in 1992, the properties at 624 South Michigan Avenue and 623 South Wabash Avenue had also been acquired, thereby establishing the central core of the new campus.

Dr. John B. Duff, college president from 1992 to 2000, oversaw the addition of a number of buildings which expanded the campus significantly and included the modern college's first residence hall. Through his efforts, and those of the succeeding administration, the South Loop and Columbia College Chicago have become permanently intertwined. Today, Columbia's campus occupies almost two dozen buildings covering more than 2.5 million square feet. Such growth has proved instrumental in transforming the city's declining downtown from a skid row into the vibrant community that now exists. Duff also led the college in its first long-range planning effort and expanded both local and national development initiatives. During his tenure, the college changed its name to Columbia College Chicago.

Dr. Warrick L. Carter became the college's most recent president in 2000. Under his leadership, Columbia has grown to become the nation's largest school of arts and media, and one of the largest in the world, as well as being the second largest provider of undergraduate education in the state, with a 2010 enrollment of about 12,000 students. The curriculum both reflects the college's past and keeps pace with contemporary interests. Oral expression still shares a place in the catalog alongside theater, radio, film, and television, and students can encounter the gamut of art experience from the ancient craft of papermaking to the future of video game development. Among the other significant achievements of Carter's tenure, the construction of the country's largest multi-college residence hall, in partnership with DePaul and Roosevelt universities, ranks highly. This space has helped enormously in transforming the college from a commuter school to a 24 hour residential campus. In 2007, the college merged with the 108 year old Sherwood Conservatory of Music, an institution which also maintains a strong commitment to community service and engagement. In spring 2010, the college opened the Media Production Center, the first newly-constructed building in the college's history. This state-of-the art professional production studio incorporates a number of innovative sustainable design elements and is LEED certified.

Upwards of 60,000 students attend classes at over 20 institutions of higher education in the Loop and surrounding neighborhoods, leading some to term the area "the education corridor" or "Loop University." Columbia stands as a leader and key player on the state’s largest "campus."

While Columbia College Chicago today has evolved substantially from its Columbia School of Oratory origins, there are continuities with its past. Its curriculum has always integrated imagination, originality, creativity, and individuality tied firmly to larger social trends, movements, and issues of the day. It has built upon its oratorical origins to creatively expand into new technical territories. Columbia College Chicago has truly lived its motto, esse quam videri, ("to be rather than to seem"), as it has fostered a heritage of innovation and creativity to fully realize the abilities and aspirations of the students it serves.

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