The last semester has been one marked by news of changes, which, at a newspaper, is to be expected.

At The Chronicle, we have endured staff changes, breaking news just hours before we send the issue to the printer and the usual struggle to chase down sources who are not the  friendliest to Chronicle staffers. We also won a Pacemaker, a national award for the best in collegiate journalism (an award that some of our closest institutional neighbors did not receive—shout out to our friendly competitors. They know who they are.)

But while the last 15 weeks have been tumultuous within The Chronicle office, they have been an even crazier ride for the college and its campus community.

Amid administrators settling into their new roles, scheduling controversies that poked at deeper issues of marginalization and the slew of new positions and terminations of staff—some sensible, others mystifying—it is evident that even Columbia is creating change even though that’s no longer an official slogan.

In my first year at Columbia, the only major personnel search was for a new president following the announcement of former President Warrick Carter’s resignation.

In the last two years, it seems as if the college has poured more time and energy into launching national searches than it has toward recruiting students—and, by extension, revenue.

Senior Vice President and Provost Stan Wearden essentially announced the restructuring of his department before the Thanksgiving break. While the vision he has set forth is admirable, it requires for several national searches that will take months to be properly carried out.

With the Strategic Plan roundtable and feedback series coming to a close as well as the ongoing conversations about diversity on campus, it seems as though his division is taking on too much to give each issue the attention it deserves.  

At least Wearden is launching searches, though. Vice President of Development Jon Stern has yet to fill his department with the staff needed to generate more revenue from fundraising, an area that has been unstable since the departure of Eric Winston, the former vice president of the defunct Institutional Advancement. Aside from the $7.2 million donation from Illinois and Gov. Pat Quinn—which was money already guaranteed to the college—there has been little progress on that front.

And though it will sound repetitive, alumni relations remain in a similar position to the fall: near nonexistent. Rather than focus on administrative title changes in academic affairs, the college would be better served to pour its energy into finding a way to defer some of its operations costs. Again, that may sound repetitive, but while it is easy to once again write it, it is much harder to continuously wait for something productive to happen.

This semester saw some positivity for the college, though. The library is bringing therapy dogs to campus for finals week, several popular figures in entertainment visited the college and President Kwang-Wu Kim was honored by the City Club of Chicago.

But it is apparent that there is now still work that needs to be completed and refined. The college cannot afford to waste any time on not solving its issues. As the semester comes to a close, I hope the administration uses the break to continue to tackle these issues.