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As president of Columbia College Chicago, Warrick Carter leads the largest arts and communications college in the country. With an enrollment of over 11,000 students, Carter is responsible for the school’s overall operation and fundraising efforts. Carter knew early on that he wanted his role in academia to be one of leadership. “I wanted to be an administrator because I wanted to be involved in making decisions about others ... I thought I had a pretty good handle [on] what was going on,” he says. Prior to Columbia, Carter was an executive for the Walt Disney Corporation in the live entertainment division. He has also served in leadership positions at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Governors State University in Chicago, and the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore. President since 2000, Carter is proud of the school’s progress. New majors include computer game design and music composition for film and television. Additionally, the student body is more diverse. “We were clearly a commuter institution concentrating on Chicago, now we have students from all 50 states and 38 foreign countries,” he notes. For Carter, growth and opportunity are what make the school second to none. “Because of our size, we have many teachers teaching the same type[s] of things, so our students get a lot of different opinions and approaches,” he says. “The quality and quantity of what we do makes us a very attractive place for college students.” -cherice e. norman

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