I’ve been checking out the recent financial issues Columbia College has been facing, and frankly I am very worried about the survival of Columbia College Chicago.

I am a 1986 alumna, and my major was music/theatre. The experience I had at Columbia I describe as nurturing and therefore transforming. I loved my teachers and my classmates as if they were family. It taught me to be a critical thinker, a problem solver who thinks outside of societal limitations, and a person who believes everyone needs and deserves unconditional love.

I would hate to think Columbia College Chicago could go under because of poor financial decisions.

Somewhere in this world there is someone who was like me: scared, confused, stressed out, in an abusive relationship, in and out of jobs, [living] hand to mouth.

Columbia College was a beacon of light in a painful inner storm. I would hate to think Columbia College wouldn’t be available to [be] that beacon if it were closed for lack of student enrollment, or internal or state mismanagement.

This letter doesn’t offer any solutions, because I am not familiar with finance or statistics or any of that linear, look at the purse stuff. If I could afford to, I would be a student at Columbia again, and hope that would help.

This is a purely emotional letter, telling you how much I love Columbia College Chicago. I am extending my gratitude, and hope Columbia irons out its financial issues and continues to move forward in being a beacon of hope like it was for me.

Thank you for reading.

Maureen Brill 

Music/Theatre, Class of 1986