School Spirit
Columbia College of Chicago is offering to supply room and board, as well as full tuition, to about twenty students who were enrolled in schools closed by hurricane Katrina. Additionally, nearly thirty Chicago-area students who had planned on attending these schools will be offered a fifty-percent tuition reduction. "We [myself and Dr. Mark Kelly, the Vice President of Student Affairs] got all of the vice presidents in a room and agreed on that idea. Columbia College has always been an institution for those who thought of themselves as outsiders... so we were helping our own," says Columbia College President Dr. Warrick Carter in regards to Columbia's efforts to help those afflicted. Special arrangements are also being made to accommodate Columbia College students hailing from areas devastated by the storm. In regards to any future efforts the school may make to lend its support, Columbia is going by a "semester-to-semester" basis, depending on how many schools are able to re-open by the spring.

Mercy Music
"We wanted a group where the money would go directly to the people--a group that is a little more grassroots," says Jenni Schlueter, the co-founder of Compassionista Productions. "I've worked with ACORN in the past and know that they do good work." ACORN, The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, will be the beneficiary of Compassionista Productions' first major effort, a compilation CD of Chicago artists. So far, eight local acts, including The Detholz!, Pit er Pat and Baby Teeth, have confirmed or already laid down tracks for the record in which one hundred-percent of the sales will go to ACORN's Recovery and Rebuilding fund. "Peter Andreadis [of Baby Teeth] is mastering the album and ACORN is promoting the album," explains Davidson. "I'm paying for copying the CDs. I'm giving them this CD with the understanding that they're going to use to do the most good in the Gulf coast." "Nothing against the Red Cross" says Ollie Davidson, the other co-founder of Compassionista, "but there are other groups out there too."

(2005-09-20)

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