My name is Mike Else and I’m 25 years old. I’ve been a music composition student at Columbia College Chicago since 2009 and I’ve been a Junior Web-Developer at Dom & Tom Inc. for the last year. I’ve been making music since I was ten years old, now under the name Professor Kliq, most of which has been done on a computer and all of which has been done alone. I never looked at music as a career, really… even after I started college… it’s just what’s made me happy.

School for me hasn’t been easy at all… I’ve never been an academically oriented person. Regardless, I’ve tried to bear in mind that it’s the best for me – even if I can’t quite understand why right now. I’ve done a lot of complaining and I’ve had a lot of help where it wasn’t deserved, but I’ve made it to this – my last semester before I get a college degree that I, until a few years ago, never dared to even dream of.

All streams of revenue for school and possibilities for loans to get me through the next semester have all but evaporated. I have a little bit of money saved up from working over the summer, but it’s not nearly enough to pay for tuition, books, rent, bills and food.

But, here’s where it gets a little interesting…

One of my favorite professors at school mentioned the idea, several months ago, of doing some kind of independent study program – an ethnography of sorts (or so he called it at the time) that could be defined at my discretion. The summer has passed rather quickly and I’ve worked, made music, and stayed incredibly busy. It hit me recently, however, what I could do for this study: lead my final crusade to bring Creative Commons to Columbia College Chicago.

I attend an art school… and it’s nothing but creators of all kinds. Writers, film makers, photographers, graphic designers, artists, dancers, actors, web developers & designers, animators, cartoonists, musicians, sound designers and producers – these are my peers. I have tried numerous times with many, many members of the staff to sit down and explain to them how Creative Commons works, why it means so much to me how and it could to everyone else… but often I walk away with little or no response.

The experience I’ve had as an independent, American creator on the internet is incredibly unique – not in the sense that it’s extraordinary, but because I stumbled across something culturally humane and gained a perspective on it that I very strongly believe is hugely beneficial to any kind of creator. The honor, privilege and opportunity that’s come from contributing to free culture is incredible and I don’t attribute the success I’ve had to what I’ve done, but to the true possibilities of the human heart and imagination. After all, without you, the fellow commoners, there would be no Professor Kliq. My mission is to show the professors and the students at Columbia what Creative Commons is, what it stands for, why it’s valuable to me and why it could be to them.

This is my last chance. I’ll have the assistance of, what I would consider to be, the most forward-thinking and innovative professor in the music department – but I’m going to need more than that to pull this off. I need to pay for this last semester to finish this fight and to get my degree.

I ask you to join me in this fight – to follow me down to the end of what has been a long, terrifyingly uncertain and cathartic punishment through the depths of music academia… and, above all, to unleash an entire student body’s worth of work for years to come from a renown art school into the welcoming arms of the Creative Commons community and hopefully spreading more awareness of what free culture really has to offer.

My goal is $5,000 – this will be paying for school expenses and rent. The rest I can take care of with my job while I’m in school. I have a reward system that I’ve been working on to help justify asking you folks for donations, which is listed below. What I’ve listed is relatively loose – I’m definitely open to suggestions! I’ll post the names of those who have donated regularly – probably on this site. My Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts will be ablaze with each other’s activity with regards to this campaign as well as my crusade to bring Creative Commons to my school. I want you to know what’s going on at all times. I want you to be a part of what I’m doing – because the truth is, you really are.

The method of fund raising needs to be a steady stream – something like Kickstarter, unfortunately, wouldn’t work in this situation because it’s a bit of an emergency, in a way. Paypal has served me well over the years and I do feel comfortable in using it as the platform for this. Also, Donations Tracker seems to be a good way to keep things transparent.

Just email me ( mike@professorkliq.com ) and we’ll talk – We’ll work out a schedule and a deadline as to when it can be done. Please remember – I’m in school full-time and working 20 to 30 hours per week, so I’ll be a pretty busy guy.

You’ll hear from me soon. The semester starts September 6th and I’ll be posting YouTube videos about the progress of this campaign as well as the Creative Commons campaign at Columbia. Also, if you have questions, please email me at mike@professorkliq.com