Note: This document is still being revised and should not be considered authoritative. You may use it as a guide to policies past and present. Sections that have been updated and revised will always include a reference to the authoritative document for the relevant policies.

Links within the sections below indicate places where copy has been changed from the text of the most recently published hard copy of the Faculty Handbook, and show the changes that have been made.

105 ABOUT THIS HANDBOOK

110 THE FACULTY HANDBOOK EDITORIAL COMMITTEE,
  TASK FORCE OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE COUNCIL, 2002-2005

115 ACCREDITATION

120 EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

125 MISSION OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE

130 POLICY STATEMENT ON HEALTH AND SAFETY

105    ABOUT THIS HANDBOOK

The information in this handbook has been prepared to inform you about current Columbia College Chicago practices, policies, and benefits so that our working relationship will be one of mutual understanding and cooperation. This Handbook is not intended to be, and is not, a contract of employment, nor does it create any contractual or other legal rights.  Rather, this Handbook is a compendium of existing policies and procedures and is designed solely as a guide.  All items contained in the handbook are subject to the above provisions.

110    THE FACULTY HANDBOOK EDITORIAL COMMITTEE, TASK FORCE OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE COUNCIL, 2002-2005

Special thanks are due to the members of the 2002-2005 Faculty Handbook Editorial Committee, who served with great diligence and spirit to edit the Handbook. The committee members were:

Special thanks are also due to Aimee Algas, assistant to the Associate Provost, and Kara Clark DuQuette, administrative assistant in the Educational Studies Department, for the invaluable assistance they provided to the committee members in fulfilling their charge.

115    ACCREDITATION

Columbia College Chicago is accredited at the graduate and undergraduate levels by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools and by the Illinois Board of Higher Education.  The College is accredited as a teacher training institution by the Illinois State Board of Education.  For further information about Columbia’s accreditation, contact the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, 30 North LaSalle Street, Suite 2400, Chicago, Il 60602, 312-263-0456.  Columbia College Chicago is an independent and unaffiliated institution of higher education.

120    EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

Columbia College Chicago complies with all local, state, and federal laws and regulation concerning civil rights. Admission and practices of the College are free of any discrimination based on age, race, color, creed, sex, religion, handicap, disability, sexual orientation, and national or ethnic origin. Inquiries regarding the non-discrimination policies should be directed to the Equity Issues Officer at 312-344-8215.

125    MISSION OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE

Columbia College Chicago is an undergraduate and graduate college whose principal commitment is to provide a comprehensive educational opportunity in the arts, communications, and public information, within a context of enlightened liberal education.

Columbia's intent is to educate students who will communicate creatively and shape the public's perceptions of issues and events and who will author the culture of their times. Columbia is an urban institution whose students reflect the economic, racial, cultural, and educational diversity of contemporary America. Columbia conducts education in close relationship to a vital urban reality and serves an important civic purpose by active engagement in the life and culture of Chicago.

At the undergraduate level, it is Columbia's Purpose:

• To educate students for creative occupation in diverse fields in the arts and media, and to encourage awareness of their aesthetic relationship and the opportunity of professional choice among them;
• To extend educational opportunity by admitting unreservedly (at the undergraduate level) a student population with creative ability in, or inclination to, the subjects of Columbia's interest;
• To provide a college climate that offers students an opportunity to try themselves out, to freely explore and to discover what they can and want to do;
• To give educational emphasis to doing, to the work of a subject, by providing a practical setting, professional facilities, and the example and guidance of an inventive faculty who work professionally at the subjects they teach;
• To teach students to do expertly the work they like, to master the crafts of their intended occupations, and to discover alternative opportunities to employ their talents in settings other than customary marketplaces;
• To help students to find out who they are and to discover their own voices, respect their own individuality, and improve their self-esteem and self-confidence; and
• To offer specialized graduate programs which combine a strong conceptual emphasis with practical professional education, preparing students with mature interests to be both competent artists and successful professionals.

At the graduate level, Columbia’s mission and purposes are as follow:

Columbia’s Graduate School aims to prepare artists, professionals, and skilled practitioners for excellence and leadership in a variety of fields including the arts, both fine and practical; the business of the arts;  and the application of the arts to healing, to the needs of an engaged community, and to creative teaching.  The Graduate School aims to change lives, not merely to add knowledge and skill.  To these ends the School:

1. selectively admits students with artistic ability and a capacity for action that can be engaged to develop the abilities and dispositions of an experienced professional;
2. selectively admits students with a mature commitment to serious study and self-development;
3. selectively admits students dedicated to reshaping themselves, our environment, our society, our culture, and their art forms or professions;
4. selectively admits students capable of risk-taking and the pursuit of the highest artistic, ethical, and professional standards;
5. teaches with an emphasis on the development of advanced conceptual ability grounded in knowledge of the relevant history and traditions of the field, in awareness of the current context of action and production in that field, and in technical skill, using a hands-on approach wherever possible;
6. employs intensive classroom work leading to personal growth, professional development, and the strengthening of the student’s voice, and, where appropriate, emphasizes collaboration in groups coupled with individuating experiences;
7. provides a challenging and intense atmosphere with small class sizes for focused, in-depth learning by adults;
8. ultimately aims to prepare students at the masters degree level, and in graduate certificate programs, who will make a significant contribution to their chosen professions.

130    POLICY STATEMENT ON HEALTH AND SAFETY

It is the policy of Columbia College that every employee is entitled to a safe and healthful place in which to work.  To this end, the College will make every effort in the interest of ecologically sound practices, accident prevention, fire protection, and preservation of health.  In addition to providing our employees with a safe and healthful place to work, it is also our policy to protect our assets against adverse financial impact from physical loss and liability, the continual practice and implementation of effective loss control and loss prevention in our daily activities is consistent with and required by both of these policy objectives.

It is the responsibility of each officer, supervisor, department chairperson, and employee to ensure that his/her own operations and activities are in compliance with these basic policies. While the ultimate responsibility rests with the College's senior administrations, the active cooperation, assistance, and implementation by each and every employee is required. Please report violations for these basic policies to the Office of Facilities and Operations. Columbia College is a smoke-free environment, except for designated areas.