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Zachary Cramer

Mi Gente performs some of their choreographies at the Buckingham Fountain on Sept. 27, 2026, before the Chicago Bears game at Soldier Field on Sept. 28, 2026.

Columbia’s Mi Gente Latin Dance Club and Team is set to perform at the halftime show of the Chicago Bears home game on Monday, Sept. 28, bringing current student and alumni dancers together for primetime at Soldier Field. 

Valentina Garcia, president of Mi Gente, heard of the opportunity after taking a salsa class with Denita Inez, director of Desueño Dance Company. Garcia initially was looking for a space to restage a parade choreography. Although that collaboration didn’t materialize, Inez later texted Garcia with a new opportunity to perform at Soldier Field.

“You never know who you are going to meet. If that day I would have said I’m not going to go to that salsa class, I would have never met Denita and the team wouldn’t be here right now,” said Garcia, a junior dance major, who coordinated and selected the team that will perform at the football game.

Mi Gente is a student dance club centered on uplifting Latino voices, traditions and heritage through a variety of dance styles. Fourteen current students and alumni are set to perform at the halftime show.

Senior dance major Areli Ramirez’s initial thought was that the invitation to perform did not feel real. 

“I started questioning and asking ‘what if it’s for a performance outside of Soldier Field?’” she said. “It feels unreal because you pass by it every day coming onto campus.”

Mi Gente has been rehearsing the Soldier Field choreography for over a month, practicing once a week for one hour at Columbia and two times a week outside of club hours.

Emily Ortiz, junior acting major, is proud of what the club has done and what it means for her.

“It’s such a great and amazing opportunity for us,” Ortiz said. “Being Latinos, we are typically not seen very much and this performance is not just about dancing, but about unity and community.”

Liliana Napoles Carrera, vice president of Mi Gente, hopes that their performance leaves people feeling more empowered to go and perform at bigger spaces, leaving behind their fear of showing off their culture and love for dancing. 

Columbia alum Elizabeth Moran, who graduated in 2026, said she’s proud of what the team has achieved thus far. 

“The purpose of Mi Gente was to represent our Latinidad and to also express our love for dance and creativity,” said Moran, former vice president of Mi Gente. “This aligns with the show’s purpose in a way to represent different cultures, dances, styles and putting them all together in a celebratory sense.” 

Mi Gente is set to perform at 8:45 p.m., alongside other dance groups at the halftime show. 

“I’m so proud of all of our team and all of the work we’ve put in. It’s going to be a really great show,” Carrera said. 

Copy edited by Isaac Russo

Resumen en español:

Mi Gente, el grupo estudiantil de baile, actuará en el espectáculo de medio tiempo durante el partido de los Chicago Bears como local el lunes 28 de septiembre, reuniendo a miembros actuales y pasados del grupo para bailar en el Soldier Field.

Valentina García, presidenta de Mi Gente, coordinó y seleccionó al equipo que participará en la actuación de medio tiempo.

García se enteró de esta oportunidad tras conocer a Denita Inez, directora de la compañía de danza llamada Desueño, al asistir a su clase de salsa mientras buscaba un espacio para volver a montar una coreografía de desfile. Aunque aquella colaboración inicial no llegó a concretarse, más tarde Inez contactó a García para ofrecerle una nueva oportunidad de actuar en el Soldier Field.

Mi Gente cuenta con 10 miembros activos, con un total de 14 miembros actuales y pasados listos para actuar en el espectáculo de medio tiempo.

La actuación de Mi Gente está programada para las 8:45 p.m., junto a otros grupos de baile, durante el espectáculo de medio tiempo. 

Resumen en español por Anthony Hernandez

The reduction comes largely from expense cuts, including layoffs and positions left vacant after employees departed. 

Jeffrey Bethke, interim chief financial officer, said the college is now at a staffing level in line with the budget for fiscal year 2027, which started Sept. 1, but revenue remains uncertain as the college has not yet finalized fall enrollment figures.

“Almost all of the work was on the expense side, which makes it particularly painful for the college,” he said. “It’s no secret we’ve had some workforce reductions over the course of the last six months.”

The projected reduction follows a $40 million operating deficit budgeted for the fiscal year that ended in August. The college also has an endowment of about $130 million and $60 million in outstanding debt, Bethke said.

“This is another thing that’s good about Columbia College,” he said. “The level of indebtedness is not super high for this size of institution.”

Columbia’s enrollment in Spring 2026 was 3,958.

David Gerding, Faculty Senate president, said the new budget projections are a sign Columbia is moving forward. 

“I hear that as ‘There’s a realistic path towards Columbia getting back to long-term sustainability and long-term operation,’” said Gerding, an associate professor in the School of Design.

Amelia Lutz, Student Government Association president, said news of the budget reduction is a relief.

“The administration has been very upfront about not wanting to push the costs of the deficit onto students, and with the decrease in the deficit I think students can feel like they can breathe a little bit easier,” said Lutz, a senior film and television major. 

Since January 2025, the college has laid off four senior administrators and 54 full-time faculty members, the Chronicle reported in May 2026. The college also laid off five instructional specialists this summer and 14 staff members who were a part of United Staff of Columbia College.

“Unfortunately, we had also lost many faculty members that helped us,” said Oshun Cortez, president of the Latino Alliance and a junior film and television major.  

Although the official numbers are not yet available, Columbia’s new student enrollment this fall is on track to be nearly double from the year before. Columbia reported about 1,100 new students this fall compared to 632 first-time, first-year students last fall, as the Chronicle previously reported.

“The big question now relates to the revenue side,” Bethke said.

He said the college still has to tackle the remaining deficit, which he characterized as high relative to Columbia’s income, which primarily comes from tuition. 

“That level of operating deficit is completely unsustainable and puts us all in a bind as it relates to having a path forward productively and sustainably,” Bethke said.

Gerding told the Faculty Senate that the best thing faculty can do for students is to focus on retention.

“It really matters because it’s the easiest revenue for us to secure,” he said. “It’s directly in line with our teaching and learning mission, which is serving our students even more effectively.”

Copy edited by Venus Tapang

Resumen en español

La universidad proyecta que su déficit presupuestario bajará a unos 18 millones de dólares este año fiscal, una reducción de más del 50% de lo que fue presupuestado el año pasado, dijo el director financiero interino de Columbia, Jeffrey Bethke, al consejo universitario este viernes 25 de septiembre.

La mayor parte de la reducción viene de recortes de gastos, incluidos despidos y posiciones que quedaron vacantes después de que esos empleados fueran despedidos. 

Resumen por Guadalupe Loza-Sanchez

Gallery
8 Photos

Zachary Cramer

"MATADORA," a devised choreographic work by Camila Rivero Pooley, is portrayed on stage during its opening night at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026.

For Camila Rivero Pooley, a 2018 Columbia alum and the artist behind MATADORA, rage is not something to suppress. It is something that can be transformed.

“I was always demonized,” Rivero Pooley said. “I was made to feel like a monster when I was just denouncing things I felt were unfair.”

The hour-long dance theater production premiered Thursday, Sept. 24, at Columbia’s Dance Center, combining choreography, physical theater, lighting, sound and body horror to explore feminine rage, identity and transformation.

INSÉKTA describes MATADORA as a “spectacle of divine horrors.” 

“For me, MATADORA is like a new archetype with the understanding that rage is a source of power and self-possession,” she said.

The production follows a creature-like figure through a mythological journey involving rage, the psyche, misogyny and machismo. Throughout the performance, the dancers shift between human and monstrous forms, using their bodies to explore what anger can become when it’s no longer treated as something that should be hidden.

The idea came from INSÉKTA’s own experiences with anger and gender expectations. Born in Lima, Peru, and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, she said she was often made to feel her anger was something that made her a “monster.”

Through MATADORA, INSÉKTA said she wanted to create an archetype that could resonate with women and gender-diverse people while embracing the complexity of emotions that are often suppressed.

The production’s grotesque imagery developed alongside that exploration.

INSÉKTA first began thinking about the project in 2024 before presenting earlier versions at Columbia. She said the piece went through four to five iterations before becoming the production that premiered on Thursday. 

“MATADORA has been a meaningful process for me,” said dancer Gabriela Chauta. “The feeling I have when we rehearse and perform is one of female rage, metamorphosis, challenging the boundaries of the norm and a crazy but ecstatic energy.”

Chauta said working with a Latina choreographer has also made the experience particularly meaningful.

“As a fellow Latina, I feel so proud to learn from and be inspired by a powerhouse like INSÉKTA,” Chauta said.

The production extends beyond choreography. Lighting designer Alé Favila translated INSÉKTA’s visual references and color palette onto the stage, while sound designers Hugo Flores García and Samuel Osorio created an electronic soundscape using improvised recordings. 

Osorio said he and Flores García worked with INSÉKTA to record live material over roughly two to three weeks. They later selected sections of those recordings and assembled them into the final sound collage. 

The result is intentionally unsettling, with sound and lighting helping to create the world surrounding the dancers.

Costume designer Jacky Kelsey helped shape the visual language of MATADORA, designing around the dancers’ intense physical movements and the production’s distorted view of the body.

“I knew I wanted something that looked a little bit constricting or contorted the body in some way,” Kelsey said. 

The designs evolved into sculptural harnesses and fleshy, prosthetic pieces made of foam. 

“So many shapes are made just with their bodies,” Kelsey said.

Together, the costumes, lighting and sound help create the mythology surrounding the dancers, turning the stage into the world of MATADORA.

The production also asks the audience to participate after the performance.

Eduardo Favian, who worked on marketing and public engagement, helped create an interactive installation where audience members respond to the prompt “How does rage live in your body?”

Artwork that attendees made based on their responses will become part of an audiovisual archive connected to the production.

Audience members at Thursday’s premiere described the production as immersive, unsettling and difficult to look away from.

Amanda Kirschbaum, a sophomore dance major, said she was immersed the whole time.

“They were full-on creatures on stage,” Kirschbaum said. “There was not one moment where they lost it.”

Sara Larson, a sophomore dance major, said the production left her thinking about its meaning.

“I felt like I could relate to a lot of it,” Larson said. “Even though everything was kind of metaphorical in a way, I felt like I really resonated with all the feelings.”

That reaction is what INSÉKTA hopes the work can create. She said she wants audiences to experience it emotionally.

“I want to make things that make people feel things more than they think,” INSÉKTA said.

After the opening night performance, INSÉKTA said she was excited to see how audiences continued to respond to her work.

“We gave birth to a monster,” she said. “And I love it.”

MATADORA runs at the Dance Center through Saturday, Sept. 26. 

Copy edited by Isaac Russo

Resumen en español 

Camila Rivero Pooley, graduada de Columbia en 2018 y conocida por el nombre artístico INSÉKTA, explora la rabia, la identidad y la transformación femenina, en su producción llamada “MATADORA”.

Esta obra artística combina aspectos de la danza, el teatro, expresión corporal y el horror expresado en el vestuario, iluminación y sonido, intentando proyectar la rabia como una fuerza y poder, en vez de mantenerlo reprimido.

“MATADORA” está basada en las experiencias de vida de INSÉKTA y su perspectiva sobre el corromper de las normas y lo establecido. Esta pieza invita al público a reflexionar sobre la rabia que cada uno lleva dentro suyo. 

Esta producción fue inaugurada en el Dance Center de Columbia, el jueves 24 de septiembre, y se continuará presentando hasta el sábado 26 de septiembre. La producción también forma parte del festival de teatro latino llamado Destinos. 

Resumen en español por Camila Verzino 

Gallery
3 Photos

Kameron Clepper

Student views the work of student artist Zayden German, and his photo piece “Colors of Home” in the Hokin Gallery's newest exhibit, "Colors of Home" on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026.

What does home mean to you?

Columbia students asked themselves this question in preparation for the “Colors of Home” exhibition at the Hokin Gallery, exploring a range of art styles to showcase what home means to them.  

The exhibition, which included photographs, poems and handmade paper from 13 students,  opened Thursday, Sept. 24.

“Home means different things for different people,” said Ana Lara, a graduate student studying in the strategic communication program. “‘Colors of Home’ is about what home feels like to students.”

The exhibition was inspired by an Instagram post from Zayden German, a senior photography major. The post that included images of his family and Chicago was captioned, “Colors of Home.”

German’s work is depicted through “natural landscapes, images of family, images of my sister’s cats, and an image of a street sign of my neighborhood,” he said.

Growing up in a small town in Colorado, German reflected on how moving to Chicago was a “big jump” for him. Through capturing Chicago landscapes, he said he was able to show how home can shift from place to place.

“It can be your friends in Chicago, but it can also be your family back at home,” German said. 

Carley Brown, an interdisciplinary major focused on craft and culture who graduated in May, collaborated with Lara to share their stained glass art, which they have been making for five years.

Milkweed is a recurring theme in their art, a plant, and a nickname their late father gave them in childhood. The work they presented was three pieces of stained glass with a green background and milkweeds throughout. 

“This is my third or fourth piece using milkweed in it. It is just something I keep coming back to,” Brown said. 

For Lara, “home is more literal, and it is more like a place.”

She considered herself a “realism artist.” A lover of architecture, she presented her piece “Statue of Matter” as a more abstract perspective of what architecture means beyond drawings and pictures of buildings. 

“This work explores what the future of architecture could look like and how it can be influenced by nature,” Lara said. 

Using handmade paper, she created a piece that fades from colors of the sky and sun to grass and flowers. 

Desiree Payne, a first-year animation and computer graphics major, said the gallery reminded them of their high school gallery. 

“The gallery would often have events held in that space where people could put up their art, and this feels like that,” Payne said. 

Devin Schwieters, a senior film and television major, said the gallery was very personal and unique. 

“The mediums are so different, but you can still feel that intimacy and pride,” Schwieters said. 

“Colors of Home” will be at the Hokin Gallery until Nov. 13.

Copy edited by Camila Verzino

Transcript: 

0:05: Welcome back to Chronversations. 

0:07: I’m your host, Cameron Johnson. 

0:10: We have already been putting a significant dent in the semester. 

0:13: And with that being known, many clubs have been putting together opportunities to thrive within their respective communities. 

0:19: I sat down with the vice president of the Board Game Society to speak about the DNA of his organization. 

0:25: And see how many students can get involved. 

0:27: My name is Oliver Bush. 

0:29: My pronouns are he/him/his, and my major is sound design. 

0:33: Can you also tell me your position within the Board Game Society? 

0:36: So, right now I am serving as our vice president for this kind of, this current semester. 

0:43: What would you say is the origin or the DNA of the Board Game Society? 

0:47: How did you guys have your start? 

0:49: I remember when I first came to Columbia about 2 years ago, the club was already existing and I wanna say it was created by Alex Lanting and Harrison Hartzell in collaboration with Brendan Riley, one of the professors here at the club. 

1:03: Brendan teaches a “Tabletop Games & Communities” class, a CCCX class. 

1:08: Post that class, Alex and Harrison approached Brendan and was like, I think we should probably try and start a board game club here at Columbia. 

1:15: I think it’s probably one of the most consistently engaged clubs. 

1:20: We have a very steady member base, a lot of people are kind of constantly showing up. 

1:25: And I think part of the reason for that is that in our kind of core identity, there is a level of casualness to the activity. 

1:34: Board Game Club is extremely come as you are. 

1:38: We do not need anyone to show up for the whole time we meet biweekly. 

1:44: We don’t need people to show up having brought a game, having even played board games before. 

1:49: We try to be as open and accepting of where someone is coming from into the club as possible. 

1:57: In what ways do you hope to deeply impact the students that come in? 

2:01: The impact that you’ve already witnessed—what is some of the impact that you’ve already witnessed? Also how do you deeply hope to impact future students? 

2:13: I would say some of the biggest impacts I’ve seen currently has been one that actually I personally experienced, having a place that is an easy environment to talk with new people and meet them because I think when you’re first coming to a new college, you know, people, we have quite a few transfer students. 

2:32: I was a transfer student myself. 

2:34: It can be very challenging to get acclimated to a new college environment, a new city, a new state. 

2:40: There’s none of this pressure to perform in a certain way, you know, you’re not trying to get grades, you’re not trying to, 

2:48: necessarily achieve something there’s not like there’s some grand prize. 

2:51: There’s almost like a removal of the distractions I find, you know, playing a game with another person is a very engaging and intimate way of talking to a person and enjoying their company because, 

3:08: it’s good courtesy to put your phone away and just dedicate the time to be like, oh, we’re gonna sit down for half an hour, 1 hour, and we’re gonna play this board game, and if you’re not feeling up for really like talking a ton, you can just focus on the game, but if you’re feeling more engaged, you can like ask questions between turns. 

3:27: I find it’s a very natural lubricant for socialization that just takes a lot of pressure off of people who I often see, you know, being a bit more within themselves and a bit more stressed about situations like that. 

3:48: I mostly play board games with my family or something like that, but that’s something that would bring peace to me. 

3:53: Like chess, that’s something that trains my mind, but I’m not stressing out unless I’m losing, but other than that, like there is a peaceful piece of,

4:03: unwinding from the screen. 

4:05: So I really like that. 

4:06: What are all of the many different events that you guys, and I know you guys do like meetups, but is there anything else that you guys do? 

4:14: Obviously, as you mentioned, we have our regular meetings. 

4:17: They are typically biweekly. 

4:20: They’re now on Fridays, they used to be on Thursdays,

4:22: and those ones are just pretty, you know, there’s not really a structure as much, but In terms of events, I think we often try to have the events match the different themed weeks of the year. 

4:36: For example, we actually have one coming up now for Kindness Week. 

4:40: I wanna say it’s October 9th will be the meeting. 

4:42: So that’s kind of one, we often do another meeting for distress fest.

4:46: Additionally, we plan to do a special meeting for Halloween, or Wicked Week specifically. 

4:54: This Friday is going to just be another regular meeting so please come as you are. 

4:59: We meet biweekly in the 600 South Michigan building on the 8th floor. 

5:04: The meeting is typically going to be from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

5:08: You do not have to stay for the whole time, you can show up late a little bit. 

5:11: The only thing worth noting is that, because of New Columbia policy, doors do close at about I think around 8:00 p.m. now. 

5:19: So try to get, make sure to get there before then if you would like to join. 

5:22: But yeah, we’re probably just going to be having another regular session. 

5:26: People will play whatever games they would like to play, bring, we’ll probably make some announcements about things coming up in the semester so that people in the club are aware of our themed nights, things like that. 

5:37: If you have any interest at all, and or have any interest in trying to learn a new game or play an old classic that you haven’t touched for a while or just meet some really cool, interesting people, I highly recommend coming out. 

5:49: If what you’ve been hearing has been right up your alley, stay tuned for more events from the Board Game Society on Engage. 

6:00: Make sure to stay up to date with campus and Metro News at columbiachronicle.com. 

6:05: I’m Cameron Johnson. 

6:07: Thanks for listening. 

6:08: And until next time. 

Copy Edited by Mia Smith

Gallery
3 Photos

Anthony Hernandez

Sophomore music business major Keith "Kash" Smith sings at the Black Student Union Talent Show at the Hive in the 618 S. Michigan Ave. building on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026.

Music, dance and applause erupted at The Hive as Columbia’s Black Student Union hosted their Talent Show, welcoming performances of all genres from the Columbia community. 

Over 50 attendees filled the third floor of the 618 S. Michigan Ave. building to show support for their peers as they braved the stage on Wednesday, Sept. 23.

BSU Vice President Lacresha White said the event was created to give creatives the floor to display their skills while building a more supportive community within BSU. 

“Even if people didn’t want to get up and show their talent, they would be able to see other people and maybe feel encouraged for other meetings,” said White, a graduate student in the entrepreneurship for creatives program. “We love to see everybody come out and express their different talents or get a chance to goof off.”

This is the second annual talent show BSU has hosted.

One of the opening acts was a newly-formed band named “Next Week,” performing the song “Sex, Drugs, Etc.” by Beach Weather as their debut.

The band consists of four first-year students: Naomi Espinoza and Hannah Kavanagh, both music production majors, and Brandon Taylor and Mareeon Walker, both acting for stage and screen majors. 

“Next Week” came together through an advertisement put out by Espinoza, hoping to start a band out of boredom and the desire to expand her songwriting and performance abilities. 

“I put out posters for band applications, and Brandon was the one who filled it out,” Espinoza said.

Taylor and Walker had already been working together on music, so they decided to join the band together. Their name came from a joke amongst the group about not being able to come up with one.

“When we were thinking of what our name should be, we didn’t have all of our members,” Taylor said, “so we just said, ‘let’s wait until next week.’” 

They later introduced Kavanagh into the band.

The band plans on performing original songs in the future after this first big step for them as performers. As for their current song in the making, Walker says they’ll have a name for it “next week.”

Jas Baugh, a first-year entrepreneurship and innovation major, also made her debut performance, rapping an original song. 

“Rapping comes as a second nature,” Baugh said. “Not only is it a gift from God, but it’s something that actually flows through me.”

For Baugh, performing is a form of therapy, allowing her to express her emotions through art rather than materializing into negativity. 

“I’d rather put my emotions, my pain, confusion or the things that I’m seeking to get understanding about within my music,” Baugh said. “Hearing my lyrics is like me speaking to myself and healing myself in a way.” 

This expression is what sparked her stage name “Spazzz the Ball.”

“I’d rather spaz on the beat than spaz in life,” Baugh said. 

Aspen Stenson, a sophomore film and television major, returned to the BSU stage performing the clarinet after previously performing a dance number at last year’s BSU’s Got Talent.  

“I love putting myself out there, showing what I can do, making mistakes and just having fun,” Stenson said. 

Stenson has been playing clarinet since she was in the fifth grade, continuing a family legacy of players. Stenson performed “Fly” by BVNDIT, a different sound than she’s used to playing as a former marching band member. 

“I mostly know pop and marching band songs, so I wanted to play more of a slow instrumental,” Stenson said. 

Naomi Hill-Caldwell, sophomore performance and songwriting major, was destined to be a singer after falling into it at a very early age.

“My dad would tell me, the moment I was born I had my hands behind my ears because I was listening to the angels sing,” Caldwell said. 

Caldwell is another returning act from BSU’s Got Talent from last year, but this fall, she performed an original song called “You See it,” which is a part of her upcoming mixtape titled “Bloom.” 

Caldwell said the Talent Show felt like “the perfect opportunity for me to get my music out there.” 

Copy edited by Camila Verzino

After East-West raised its rental rates, the college shortened the gym hours and equally divided the remaining time so that each club had 90-minute practice slots.

The higher cost of renting the gym is a legitimate financial consideration at a time when the college is managing significant budget pressures.

But dividing the shorter hours equally doesn’t account for the different needs of the various student organizations.

Columbia lost access to the gym after 9 p.m. Student clubs previously shared two-hour practice slots until 10 p.m.

The Student Organization Council looked at the time slots in the gym with the least amount of sign-ins, which helped influence the decision to eliminate the last hour, as the Chronicle previously reported. 

Though SOC made an effort to offer time slots to each organization based on their availability, the new schedule isn’t fair to the clubs with bigger participation. 

Student organizations across campus are reporting larger turnouts this fall and greater participation from first-years. This adjustment to gym hours is going to make it harder to accommodate them.

One student told the Chronicle that the new 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. time slot will be hard for students who have class until 6:20 p.m. 

The 90-minute slots are also too short for clubs with larger groups of students or for those that need more preparation time. 

For example, the Cosmos Volleyball club needs time to set up and take down nets at the beginning and end of practice, which will further shorten their time playing volleyball.

Student organizations are not simply recreational extras. Club meetings are a space for students to network, make friends and de-stress throughout the school year. Those necessary hours for students to enjoy are now impacted by the shortened practice times. 

The college had to make a difficult budget decision. That should be acknowledged. But once the amount of available gym time was reduced, the next question should have been how to distribute that limited resource in a way that reflects the various needs of the students who depend on it.

Equity should mean taking everyone’s different needs into account.

Copy edited by Camila Verzino