Photo of Warrick Carter by Robert Drea

Letter from the President

Dear Friends:

The arts are big business these days. A recent book published by Rutgers University Press has suggested that this country’s arts, media, and entertainment industries generate more than $850 billion in economic activity each year. The arts have become integrated with all aspects of our economy—from web design and animation to automobiles, dentistry, and food services.

At Columbia College Chicago, we prepare students to play leading roles in these industries. Columbia alumni are journalists in Atlanta and filmmakers in Hollywood, writers in New York and advertising executives in Miami, arts managers in Chicago and a host of places in between. They operate scoreboards at sports arenas and run film festivals in Dallas.

Parisa Khosravi was one of two successful professionals honored as Alumni of the Year for 2006. Parisa left Columbia in 1987 to begin working for CNN in Atlanta, where, today, she is vice president in charge of international newsgathering for the CNN News Group. In her 19 years with CNN, she has played a central role in covering the most significant international news stories of our time—including the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, the genocide in Rwanda, the Asian Tsunami, Tiananmen Square, the Israeli—Palestinian Conflict, and both Gulf Wars. Her work has earned numerous awards, including a Peabody, an Emmy, a DuPont Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award and two Overseas Press Club Awards.

Our second awardee was Peter Teschner, one of the most sought-after film editors in Hollywood. Over the past two decades, he was worked on more than 30 projects, including, most recently, the box-office hit Borat, but also I Spy, Legally Blonde 2, Charlie’s Angels, Dr. Doolittle, Private Parts, and Deadly Weapon.

When parents come to me during college open houses and ask whether there are jobs to be found for their sons and daughters who want to be “artists,” I answer with an unqualified “yes!”

There are jobs in the arts. But equally important, I tell parents, there are opportunities to make a difference in the world, to change attitudes or effect social change. There are opportunities to bring the world to our doorsteps, to use one’s artistic eyes to help others see the changing world around us. And there are opportunities to provide a place of respite when news of war and famine and disease and destruction threaten to overwhelm our sensitivities and deaden our creative spirit.

Warm regards,

Warrick L. Carter, Ph.D.
President, Columbia College Chicago