president by 1961. Mike Alexandroff had worked at the college since 1947 and as president, he created a liberal arts college with a "hands-on minds-on" approach to arts and media education with a progressive social agenda. He established a generous admissions policy so that qualified high school graduates could attend college courses taught by some of the most influential and creative professionals in Chicago. For the next thirty years, Alexandroff worked to build the college into an urban institution that helped to change the face of higher education. With this renewed focus on building its academic program, the institution was awarded full accreditation in 1974 from the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools and in 1984, received accreditation for its graduate programs. In 1975, when the college's enrollment exceeded 2,000, it purchased its first real estate, the building at 600 South Michigan Avenue (the building is now known as the Alexandroff Campus Center). At the time of Alexandroff's retirement in 1992, the college served 6,791 students and owned or rented more than of instructional, performance, and administrative space. From 1992 until 2000, John B. Duff, former commissioner of the Chicago Public Library and former chancellor of the Massachusetts Board of Regents of Higher Education, served as the college's president. On October 28, 1997, the college changed its name to Columbia College Chicago, and the institution continued to expand its educational programs and add to its physical campus by purchasing available buildings in the South Loop. This played a significant part in its presence in the South Loop and downtown Chicago. Today, the college's campus occupies almost two dozen buildings and utilizes over 2.5 million square feet. In 2000, Dr. Warrick L. Carter became the college's president. An educator, jazz composer, and performing artist, Carter joined the college from The Walt Disney Company, where he spent four years as director of entertainment arts. Previously, he had spent 12 years at Berklee College of Music in Boston, one of the world's-largest independent schools of music, where he served as dean of faculty and then provost and vice president of academic affairs. Through 2010, under his leadership, the college created new student-based initiatives such as Manifest, the annual urban arts festival celebrating Columbia's graduating students, and ShopColumbia, a store where students can showcase and sell their work on campus; partnered with local universities to construct the University Center; purchased new campus buildings;