Carleton College

Facts and History

This article is about the Minnesota college. For the former Carleton College in Ontario, see Carleton University.

Skinner Memorial Chapel, Carleton College

Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, USA, was founded on November 14, 1866, by the Minnesota Conference of Congregational Churches as Northfield College. In 1871, the name was changed in honor of benefactor William Carleton of Charlestown, Massachusetts.

The school is an independent, non-sectarian, coeducational, liberal arts college with about 1,900 students. The College respects its historical ties and gives continuing recognition to them through membership in the Council for Higher Education of the United Church of Christ. Its current president is Robert A. Oden.

Several of Carleton's properties deserve some historical recognition. Carleton's Goodsell Observatory, built in 1887, is on the national registry of historic places. The Carleton College Cowling Arboretum created from lands purchased in the 1920s during difficult financial times by then president Donald J. Cowling, was first called "Cowling's Folly" and later called his legacy. It consists of approximately 880 acres (3.6 km²) of forest, floodplain, and many miles of trail. Finally, an intricate series of heated underground tunnels connect most campus buildings, though they have not been in general use since 1988 due to concerns related to environmental conditions within the tunnels, safety (OSHA has rules about confined spaces, such as tunnels), and security.

Carleton is nationally recognized as a substantial academic force. It is consistently ranked in the U.S. News and World Report's college rankings within the top five U.S. liberal arts schools. Carleton competes in quizbowl and won the 1999 National Academic Quiz Tournaments undergraduate championship. In 1996, 1997, 1999, 2002 and 2004, the team from Carleton received Best Delegation at the Harvard World Model United Nations competition.

The nation's oldest student-run pub, The Cave, was founded in 1927 in the basement of Evans Hall, a residence hall. It still hosts live music shows and other events several times each week.

The mother grove of the RDNA or Reformed Druids of North America was founded at Carleton in 1963. This was an important catalyst in the eventual abolishment of a religious activity requirement formely required on Sunday mornings.

KRLX, the College's format-free student-run radio station, broadcasts continually when school is in session.

The 1991 Pamela Dean fantasy novel, Tam Lin, is set at the fictional "Blackstock College," acknowledged in the afterword by Dean to be based on the Carleton of the early 1970s.

Athletics

Carleton's varsity sports teams are competitive, but none has won such national acclaim as the student-run Ultimate clubs; most notably, the Carleton Ultimate Team (CUT) and Syzygy are national forces. CUT has qualified yearly for nationals since 1990, and won the National Championship in 2001 after several years of being the "perennial bridesmaid." Syzygy qualified for nationals fourteen of fifteen years (1989-2002, 2004), winning the National Championship in 2000.

Carleton College is a member of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC).

Traditions

Painting the school water tower has always been a favorite undertaking. Most notably, a remarkably accurate likeness of President Clinton was painted the night before his commencement speech in 2000, and repainted very early the following morning. Clinton mentioned in his address that he "would've liked to see it." Another target was the college's beloved then-President Steven "Skeetch" Lewis, who appeared in caricature on the tower for some time and later was bid farewell from the same venue upon his retirement in 2002. Painting Lewis's likeness on the water tower involved considerable logistical hurdles, including the creation of a 15'x15' stencil and keeping tabs on campus security via walkie-talkie. Administrative attitudes toward this particular phenomenon have changed over time. For liability-related reasons, even climbing the water tower is now considered a grave infraction.

Streaking remains a ubiquitous phenomenon. Numerous yearly traditions exist, including a naked marching band. This activity is particularly impressive in winter temperatures that average about 15º F (-9º C), and occasionally reach as low as -25º (-32º C).

A bust of Friedrich Schiller, known simply as Schiller, appears frequently at campus events. The tradition dates back to 1957, when students were pressed into service to transfer the contents of the older Scoville Library to the newly completed Gould Library. At the time property of the college president, the bust was appropriated by the student body. Schiller was passed on through numerous classes, and continues to appear at least once a year, though often only for high-profile events. In perhaps its greatest appearance, the bust was once dangled by chain from a helicopter above a football game against Macalester College. Schiller's appearance, accompanied by a shouted "Schiller!", is a tacit challenge to other students to try to capture the bust (which has, understandably, been replaced at least once – one Schiller bust may still be in residence in the state of Puebla, Mexico).

A baseball game known as Rotblatt, in honor (or open mockery) of player Marvin Rotblatt, is held every spring. While Rotblatt used to be an actual intramural baseball league, it has since changed into one solitary event: a faux baseball game involving the heavy consumption of alcohol. Rotblatt traditionally lasts for as many innings as the College has had anniversaries; in 1997, Sports Illustrated honored it in its "Best of Everything" section with the award, "Longest Intramural Event."

A new tradition, the Annual Intergalactic Super Hero Super Villain Convention, draws upon the student body's more creative and quirky side, requiring attendees of the convention to come as either an original Super Hero or Super Villain of their design. This event consists of spectacular production and tongue in cheek humor, often boasting giant inflatable domes (as big as 30' x 30'), a giant 200' long custom made slip and slide, a 800 piece glow stick spiral field and the deactivation chamber, which deactivates the attendees super powers for the evening, ensuring a safe night for all. The event is held the second to last week of the school year, offering a great stress release to the grueling academic lifestyle of Carls.

Notable faculty and alumni

See also Category:Carleton College alumni

Thorstein Veblen, (1880), American economist and author of The Theory of the Leisure Class.
Pierce Butler, (1887), Supreme Court Justice from 1923 to 1939.
Melvin R. Laird, (1942), President Nixon's secretary of defense from 1969 to 1973.
Garrick Utley, (1961), correspondent for CNN perhaps best known for his reports related to the 9.11.01 terrorist attacks, majored in political science.
Barrie M. Osborne, (1966), producer of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
Don Rawitsch, (1971), creator of the popular educational computer game The Oregon Trail.
Chris Kratt, (1992), creator and host of Kratt's Creatures and Zoboomafoo, the popular public television shows for children.
Jack Barnes, the leader of the Socialist Workers Party (USA)
Michael Armacost, former ambassador and president of the Brookings Institution from 1995-2002.
Anthony Downs is a Carleton alumnus.
Peter Tork of The Monkees was a student of English at Carleton for three years until he left to pursue music full time.

Ambassador Burton Levin, Former United States Consul General to Hong Kong and US Ambassador to Burma from May 1987 to September 1990 is currently the SIT Investment Visiting Professor of Asian Policy.
John Bates Clark, famous American economist was a professor at Carleton and taught Thorstein Veblen.
Ian Barbour, professor emeritus, 1989–91 Gifford lecturer on religion and science, and winner of the 1999 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.
Paul Wellstone, a U.S. Senator from Minnesota until his death in 2002, was a professor of political science at Carleton from 1969 to 1990.
Eric Hillemann, archivist at Carleton College, won the Carper Award in 2003. He is known as a formidable quizbowl player, and coach of the Carleton team.

Points of interest

External links