Carleton College
Encyclopedia
Carleton College is an independent non-sectarian
Sectarianism
Sectarianism, according to one definition, is bigotry, discrimination or hatred arising from attaching importance to perceived differences between subdivisions within a group, such as between different denominations of a religion, class, regional or factions of a political movement.The ideological...

, coeducation
Coeducation
Mixed-sex education, also known as coeducation or co-education, is the integrated education of male and female persons in the same institution. It is the opposite of single-sex education...

al, liberal arts college
Liberal arts colleges in the United States
Liberal arts colleges in the United States are certain undergraduate institutions of higher education in the United States. The Encyclopædia Britannica Concise offers a definition of the liberal arts as a "college or university curriculum aimed at imparting general knowledge and developing general...

 in Northfield
Northfield, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 17,147 people, 4,909 households, and 3,210 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,452.2 people per square mile . There were 5,119 housing units at an average density of 732.1 per square mile...

, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The college enrolls 1,958 undergraduate students, and employs 198 full-time faculty members. In 2012 U.S. News and World Report ranked Carleton College the 6th best liberal arts college in the United States and ranked Carleton number one for undergraduate teaching at a national liberal arts college. In 2011 Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...

 named Carleton the 15th best college or university in the United States.

History

The school was founded on May 3, 1866, by the Minnesota Conference of Congregational Church
Congregational church
Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....

es as Northfield College. Two local businessmen, Charles Augustus Wheaton
Charles Augustus Wheaton
Charles Augustus Wheaton was a businessman and major figure in the central New York state abolitionist movement and Underground Railroad, as well as other progressive causes...

 and Charles M. Goodsell, each donated 10 acres (4 ha) of land for the first campus. The first students enrolled in fall 1867. In 1870, the first college president, James Strong
James Strong (college president)
Dr. James Woodward Strong, theologian and scholar, was the first president of Carleton College. Despite lifelong illness and injury, Strong was a highly active man throughout his life, juggling multiple professional and personal occupations....

, traveled to the East Coast to raise funds for the college. On his way from visiting William Carleton
William Carleton (Massachusetts)
William Carleton was a prosperous manufacturer of brassware from Charlestown, Massachusetts.In December 1870, Carleton was introduced to Reverend James W. Strong, the young president of Minnesota's fledgling Northfield College. Shortly thereafter, Strong was seriously, but not fatally, injured...

 of Charlestown, Massachusetts
Charlestown, Massachusetts
Charlestown is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and is located on a peninsula north of downtown Boston. Charlestown was originally a separate town and the first capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; it became a city in 1847 and was annexed by Boston on January 5, 1874...

, Strong was badly injured by a train. Impressed by Strong's survival, Carleton donated US$50,000 to the fledgling institution in 1871, and the Board of Trustees renamed the school in his honor.
The college graduated its first class in 1874. The first two graduates, James J. Dow and Myra A. Brown, married each other later that year.

On September 7, 1876, the James-Younger Gang
James-Younger gang
The James-Younger Gang was a notable 19th-century gang of American outlaws that included Jesse James.The gang was centered in the state of Missouri. Membership fluctuated from robbery to robbery, as the outlaws' raids were usually separated by many months...

, led by outlaw Jesse James
Jesse James
Jesse Woodson James was an American outlaw, gang leader, bank robber, train robber, and murderer from the state of Missouri and the most famous member of the James-Younger Gang. He also faked his own death and was known as J.M James. Already a celebrity when he was alive, he became a legendary...

, attempted to rob the First National Bank of Northfield. Joseph Lee Heywood
Joseph Lee Heywood
Joseph Lee Heywood was the acting cashier at the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota when the James-Younger Gang attempted to rob the bank...

, Carleton's Treasurer, was acting cashier at the bank that day. He was shot and killed for refusing to open the safe. Carleton later named a library fund after Heywood, and the Heywood Society is the name for a group of donors who have named Carleton in their wills.

In its early years under the presidency of James Strong, Carleton reflected the theological conservatism of its Minnesota Congregational founders. In 1903, modernist religious influences were brought when Yale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School is a professional school at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. preparing students for ordained or lay ministry, or for the academy...

 graduate William Sallmon was hired as college president. Sallmon was opposed by conservative faculty members, who forced him out by 1908.

The trustees hired another theologically liberal Yale Divinity School graduate, Donald J. Cowling, as his successor. In 1916, under Cowling's leadership, Carleton began an official affiliation with the Minnesota Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 Convention. It lasted until 1928, when the Baptists severed the relationship as a result of fundamentalist opposition to Carleton's liberalism, including the college's support for teaching about evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...

. Although non-denominational for a number of years, Carleton abolished its requirement for weekly attendance at some religious or spiritual meeting in 1964.

In 1927, students founded what is the nation's oldest student-run pub, The Cave
The Cave (pub)
The Cave is the oldest student-run pub in the United States. It is a favorite gathering place for students at Carleton College and is one of a limited number of music venues in Northfield, Minnesota. Founded in 1927, it is housed on the lowest level of the Margaret Evans Dormitory.The Cave is open...

. Located in the basement of Evans Hall, it continues to host live music shows and other events several times each week.

In 1942, Carleton purchased land in Stanton
Stanton, Minnesota
Stanton is an unincorporated community in Stanton Township, Goodhue County, Minnesota, United States. It lies at the junction of Minnesota State Highways 19 and 56, approximately 10 miles east of Northfield. Its post office closed during federal budget cuts in the 1970s.The community is served by...

, about 10 miles (16.1 km) east of campus, to use for flight training. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, several classes of male students went through air basic training at the college. The Stanton Airfield is operated for commercial use, having been sold by the college in 1944.

The world premiere production of Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...

's play The Caucasian Chalk Circle
The Caucasian Chalk Circle
The Caucasian Chalk Circle is a play by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. An example of Brecht's epic theatre, the play is a parable about a peasant girl who rescues a baby and becomes a better mother than its natural parents....

was performed in 1948 at Carleton's Nourse Little Theater.

The Reformed Druids of North America
Reformed Druids of North America
The Reformed Druids of North America is an American Neo-Druidic organization. It was formed in 1963 at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota as a humorous protest against the college's required attendance of religious services. This original congregation is called the Carleton Grove, sometimes...

 was founded at Carleton in 1963, initially as an effort by students to be excused from attending the then-required weekly chapel service. Later the group conducted legitimate spiritual exploration. Meetings continue to be held in the Carleton College Cowling Arboretum
Carleton College Cowling Arboretum
Carleton College Cowling Arboretum consists of approximately 880 acres of land adjacent to Carleton College. It was created under the leadership of President Donald J. Cowling and Professor Harvey E. Stork in the 1920s. Professor Stork and Superintendent of Grounds D...

.

The popular early computer game The Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail (computer game)
The Oregon Trail is a computer game originally developed by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger in 1971 and produced by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium in 1974. The original game was designed to teach school children about the realities of 19th century pioneer life...

was created, and later further developed, by students at Carleton in 1971.

President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

 gave the last commencement address of his administration at Carleton, on June 10, 2000.

Academics

Carleton College is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools , also known as the North Central Association, is a membership organization, consisting of colleges, universities, and schools in 19 U.S. states, that is engaged in educational accreditation...

. The next on-site review for this accreditation will be in 2018-19.

Rankings

Academically, Carleton has been nationally recognized as a leading undergraduate institution. It is consistently ranked in the U.S. News and World Report's college rankings as one of the top ten U.S. liberal arts schools. According to 2012 U.S. News and World Report rankings, Carleton College is the #6 liberal arts college in the United States after Williams College
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...

, Amherst College
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...

, Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....

, Middlebury College
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...

, and Pomona College
Pomona College
Pomona College is a private, residential, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. Founded in 1887 in Pomona, California by a group of Congregationalists, the college moved to Claremont in 1889 to the site of a hotel, retaining its name. The school enrolls 1,548 students.The founding member...

.

In the Forbes Magazine ranking of American colleges, which combines liberal arts colleges and national research universities together in one list, the College is ranked #15. Among liberal arts colleges only, Carleton ranks #7 in the survey.

Carleton College is part of the Annapolis Group
Annapolis Group
The Annapolis Group is an American organization that describes itself as "a nonprofit alliance of the nation’s leading independent liberal arts colleges." It represents approximately 130 liberal arts colleges in the United States...

, which has made a group statement asking members not to participate in ranking surveys. President Robert Oden stated on September 7, 2007, "We commit not to mention U.S. News or similar rankings in any of our new publications, since such lists mislead the public into thinking that the complexities of American higher education can be reduced to one number."

Carleton participates in the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU)'s University and College Accountability Network (U-CAN), a co-operative effort on the part of colleges to provide data for school comparison on a variety of bases.

Admissions and selectivity

On average, the middle 50 percent of first-year students received 1330-1490 on the SAT
SAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...

 Critical Reading and Math Sections and a composite 29-33 on the ACT; more than three quarters of the entering students ranked in the top 10% of their high school graduating classes.

Carleton has enrolled more students who are in the National Merit Scholarship Program
National Merit Scholarship Program
The National Merit Scholarship Program is a United States academic scholarship competition for recognition and college scholarships administered by National Merit Scholarship Corporation , a privately funded, not-for-profit organization. The program began in 1955...

 than any other liberal arts college in the country. Its Class of 2012 includes 93 National Merit Scholars (which includes both Carleton-sponsored and external National Merit Scholars) among its 493 students.

Graduates

Among American liberal arts institutions, Carleton College is a leading source of undergraduate students pursuing doctorates. It has also been recognized for sending a large number of female students to graduate programs in the sciences.

Extracurricular organizations

The school's nearly 150 active student organizations include three theatre boards (coordinating as many as ten productions every term), longform and shortform improv groups and a sketch comedy troupe, seven a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

groups, four choirs, seven specialized instrumental ensembles, five dance interest groups, two auditioned dance companies, a successful Mock Trial team, a nationally competitive debate program, seven recurring student publications, and a student-run KRLX
KRLX
KRLX is a student-run, freeform radio format, non-commercial FM college radio station broadcasting from Northfield, Minnesota. Affiliated with Carleton College. The station's call sign was chosen to read "KaRL-ten," since X is the Roman numeral for ten. KRLX broadcasts with 100 watts of power at...

 radio station, which employs more than 200 volunteers each term.

In 5 of the last 12 years, Carleton College students received the Best Delegation award at the World Model United Nations competition.

The College's format-free student-run radio station, KRLX
KRLX
KRLX is a student-run, freeform radio format, non-commercial FM college radio station broadcasting from Northfield, Minnesota. Affiliated with Carleton College. The station's call sign was chosen to read "KaRL-ten," since X is the Roman numeral for ten. KRLX broadcasts with 100 watts of power at...

, founded in 1947 as KARL, was recently ranked by the Princeton Review as one of the nation's "Ten Best College Radio Stations". KRLX broadcasts continually when school is in session.

Lenny Dee is Carleton's original sketch comedy group. Modeling themselves after Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

and other such shows, Lenny Dee (often affectionately abbreviated to simply "Dee") brings a regular comedy variety show to campus once a term.

In 2009 two Carleton students founded the first and only comics magazine at Carleton, the Carleton Comics Journal (now known as the Carleton Graphic). It releases an issue once every two weeks and has been generally well-received by the Carleton community.

The school has several a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

 groups. The oldest is the all-male Carleton Singing Knights, which has toured and recorded extensively over its more than 50-year history. The Knights performed a version of Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
"Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" is a song by French duo Daft Punk. The single was first released on 13 October 2001. A live version of "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" was released as a single from the album Alive 2007 on 15 October 2007. This version won a Grammy Award for Best Dance...

". Their video on Youtube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

 has received over 4 million views. It was this cover that prompted a student to make a video for the song, titled Daft Hands. The video became an internet sensation - it has been viewed over 31 million times on Youtube and resulted in the student's appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
The Ellen DeGeneres Show, often shortened to Ellen, is an American television talk show hosted by comedian/actress Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it is produced by Telepictures and airs in syndication, including stations owned by NBC Universal. For its first five seasons, the show...

for a reprise performance.

The Knightingales, one of the all-female groups, are the second-oldest a capella group on campus. They performed on a special radio performance hosted by Garrison Keillor
Garrison Keillor
Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio...

 at Dacie Moses House in 2002.

Traditions

Carleton has numerous student traditions. These include painting the college's water tower. Most notably, a likeness of President Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

 was painted on the tower the night before his commencement speech in 2000. Early the following morning, college maintenance quickly painted over it. The administration's view of this particular phenomenon have changed over time. For liability-related reasons, climbing the water tower is now considered a grave infraction. Streaking
Streaking
Streaking is the act of running nude through a public place.-History:On 5 July 1799, a Friday evening at 7 o'clock, a naked man was arrested at the Mansion House, London, and sent to the Poultry Compter...

 is a ubiquitous phenomenon, most impressive when conducted during winter temperatures that average about 15 °F (-9 °C), and occasionally reach lows around -40° (-40 °C).

A bust of Friedrich Schiller
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...

, known simply as "Schiller", has made regular appearances, though briefly, at large campus events. The tradition dates back to 1957, when a student took the bust from an unlocked storage area in the Gould Library, only to have it taken from him in turn. Possession of the bust escalated into an elaborate competition, which took on a high degree of secrecy and strategy.

These days Schiller's appearance, accompanied by the shout "Schiller!", is a tacit challenge to other students to try to capture the bust. The currently circulating bust of Schiller was retrieved from Puebla
Puebla
Puebla officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 217 municipalities and its capital city is Puebla....

, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 in the summer of 2003. In 2006, students created an online scavenger hunt, made up of a series of complex riddles about Carleton, which led participants to Schiller's hidden location. The bust was stolen from the winner of the scavenger hunt. At commencement in 2006, the holders of the bust arranged for Schiller to "graduate." When his name was called at the appropriate moment, the bust was pulled from behind the podium and prominently displayed.

In March 2010, the bust of Schiller appeared on The Colbert Report. The appearance was organized by custodians of Schiller who contacted Peter Gwinn, a Carleton alumnus who is a writer for the program.

The bust also appeared on a Halloween broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion is a live radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor. The show runs on Saturdays from 5 to 7 p.m. Central Time, and usually originates from the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota, although it is frequently taken on the road...

on Minnesota Public Radio.

Since 1990, Carleton students have played "Late Night Trivia," an annual Winter Term exam period game show broadcast over the college's radio station, KRLX
KRLX
KRLX is a student-run, freeform radio format, non-commercial FM college radio station broadcasting from Northfield, Minnesota. Affiliated with Carleton College. The station's call sign was chosen to read "KaRL-ten," since X is the Roman numeral for ten. KRLX broadcasts with 100 watts of power at...

. Students compete in teams to identify songs and answer questions.

Campus

The college campus was created in 1867 with the gifts of two 10 acres (4 ha) parcels from local businessmen Charles Goodsell and Charles Augustus Wheaton
Charles Augustus Wheaton
Charles Augustus Wheaton was a businessman and major figure in the central New York state abolitionist movement and Underground Railroad, as well as other progressive causes...

. The campus sits on a hill overlooking the Cannon River, at the northeast edge of Northfield. To the north and east are athletic fields and the Cowling Arboretum
Carleton College Cowling Arboretum
Carleton College Cowling Arboretum consists of approximately 880 acres of land adjacent to Carleton College. It was created under the leadership of President Donald J. Cowling and Professor Harvey E. Stork in the 1920s. Professor Stork and Superintendent of Grounds D...

. These were farm fields in the early years of the college. Open land beyond the Arboretum is still largely devoted to agriculture.

The center of campus is an open field called "the Bald Spot," which is used for ultimate frisbee in the warmer months and flooded for skating and broomball
Broomball
Broomball is a recreational ice game originating in Canada and played around the world. It is played in a hockey rink, either indoors or outdoors, depending on climate and location. Broomball is popular in the Canadian province of Manitoba, where Glenella is the Broomball Capital of the World...

 in the winter. Most of the campus buildings built before World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 surround the Bald Spot (the exceptions are Goodsell Observatory and Margaret Evans Hall).

Campus buildings

Several of Carleton's older buildings have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 (NRHP). These include Willis Hall
Willis Hall (Carleton College)
Willis Hall is a historic building on the campus of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places....

, the first building on campus, which was constructed beginning in 1869 and completed in 1872. Originally it contained the men's dormitory, classrooms, library, and chapel. The building was gutted by fire in 1879, after which it was entirely rebuilt within the existing stone shell. The original front of the building became the rear entrance with the construction of Severance Hall in 1928. As new buildings were built, academic departments shifted in and out of the building. Beginning in 1954, it was the college student union, until it was replaced in 1979 by the Sayles-Hill Student Center. It now houses the Economics, Political Science, and Educational Studies offices. The college's clock bell tower and the main college flagpole, along with the radio tower for KRLX, sit on the roof.
Goodsell Observatory
Goodsell Observatory
Goodsell Observatory is a building on the campus of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. It was constructed in 1887 and was, at the time, the largest observatory in the state of Minnesota. It was named for Charles Goodsell, who donated much of the land on which Carleton was founded...

, also on the NRHP, was constructed in 1887 and at the time was the largest observatory in the state of Minnesota. It was named for Charles Goodsell, who donated land for the campus. Goodsell Obeservatory replaced the college's original one, built in 1877. It was razed in 1905 to make room for Laird Hall. From the late 19th century to the end of the World War II, Goodsell Observatory kept the time for every major railroad west of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

, including Northern Pacific Railway
Northern Pacific Railway
The Northern Pacific Railway was a railway that operated in the west along the Canadian border of the United States. Construction began in 1870 and the main line opened all the way from the Great Lakes to the Pacific when former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in...

, the Great Northern Railway, the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad, and the St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba railroads. Goodsell served as the headquarters of a state weather service from 1883 to 1886.

Scoville Hall (originally Scoville Memorial Library
Scoville Memorial Library (Carleton College)
Scoville Memorial Library is an historic building on the campus of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was the college's library Until the current library was built in the 1950s. It now houses a variety of school support functions....

), completed in 1896, is on the NRHP. It was later replaced as the college library by the Gould Library. It now houses the cinema and media studies department, the media center, and the academic support center.

Four nineteenth-century buildings were demolished: Gridley Hall was for many years the main women's dormitory. It was built in 1882 and demolished in 1967 to make way for the Music and Drama Center. Williams Hall stood in front of Leighton Hall and was the college's first science building, built in 1880 and demolished in 1961. Seccombe House was located near the site of the current Skinner Chapel, and was used for music instruction from 1880 to 1914. The original Observatory was built 1878, was replaced as college observatory in 1887, and was demolished in 1905 to make way for Laird Hall

Skinner Memorial Chapel
Skinner Memorial Chapel
Skinner Memorial Chapel is a chapel and historic building on the campus of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places....

, completed in 1916, is on the NRHP.
Carleton built a new 80000 square feet (7,432.2 m²) Recreation Center in 2000. A full indoor fieldhouse is located above a fitness center, which includes a climbing wall
Climbing wall
A climbing wall is an artificially constructed wall with grips for hands and feet, usually used for indoor climbing, but sometimes located outdoors as well. Some are brick or wooden constructions, but on most modern walls, the material most often used is a thick multiplex board with holes drilled...

 and bouldering wall.

Cowling Arboretum

The Cowling Arboretum, "the Arb", was initially created from lands purchased in the 1920s by President Donald J. Cowling. As the college was having difficult financial times, it was first called "Cowling's Folly" but later became his legacy. After Carleton Farm was closed, its acreage was added to the Arboretum.

Since 1970 acreage has been removed from cultivation in sections. It consists of approximately 880 acres (356.1 ha) of restored and remnant forest, Cannon River floodplain
Floodplain
A floodplain, or flood plain, is a flat or nearly flat land adjacent a stream or river that stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls and experiences flooding during periods of high discharge...

, bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa) savannah
Savannah
Savannah or savanna is a type of grassland.It can also mean:-People:* Savannah King, a Canadian freestyle swimmer* Savannah Outen, a singer who gained popularity on You Tube...

, and tallgrass prairie
Tallgrass prairie
The tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem native to central North America, with fire as its primary periodic disturbance. In the past, tallgrass prairies covered a large portion of the American Midwest, just east of the Great Plains, and portions of the Canadian Prairies. They flourished in areas with...

. The Arboretum is divided by Minnesota Highway 19 into the larger Lower Arb to the north (so called because it includes the Cannon River valley) and the smaller Upper Arb. There are pedestrian trails throughout the Arb, including the school's cross-country running and skiing courses, and a paved mixed-use bicycle/running trail in the Upper Arb.

Sustainability

Carleton is committed to environmentally conscious initiatives. In October 2007, the Sustainable Endowments Institute, a Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

 organization, recognized Carleton as a leader in overall college sustainability. In the "College Sustainability Report Card 2008", which evaluates the 200 colleges and universities with the largest endowments in the United States and Canada, Carleton received the highest evaluation grade of A-, putting the college in the category of College Sustainability Leader with Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...

, Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

, Middlebury College
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...

, University of Vermont
University of Vermont
The University of Vermont comprises seven undergraduate schools, an honors college, a graduate college, and a college of medicine. The Honors College does not offer its own degrees; students in the Honors College concurrently enroll in one of the university's seven undergraduate colleges or...

 and University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

. The Report Card also cited Carleton as an Endowment Sustainability Leader, along with Dartmouth College and Williams College
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...

. A wind turbine
Wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity, the device may be called a wind generator or wind charger. If the mechanical energy is used to drive machinery, such as for grinding grain or...

 located near the campus generates approximately 40 percent of Carleton's electrical energy use, though it is configured to sell this power back to the local grid. Over the life of Carleton’s turbine, it is estimated that the College will reduce CO2 by 1.5 million tons. In late 2011, Carleton plans to install a second wind turbine that will directly power the campus, providing for an additional 30 to 40 percent of the college's electrical energy use.

Athletics

Carleton has athletic opportunities for students, including 19 varsity team
Varsity team
In the United States and Canada, varsity sports teams are the principal athletic teams representing a college, university, high school or other secondary school. Such teams compete against the principal athletic teams at other colleges/universities, or in the case of secondary schools, against...

s, 23 club teams, and dozens of intramural teams (including 40 separate broomball
Broomball
Broomball is a recreational ice game originating in Canada and played around the world. It is played in a hockey rink, either indoors or outdoors, depending on climate and location. Broomball is popular in the Canadian province of Manitoba, where Glenella is the Broomball Capital of the World...

 teams) forming every term. Carleton competes in NCAA Division III, meaning it offers no athletic scholarship
Athletic scholarship
An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university awarded to an individual based predominantly on his or her ability to play in a sport...

s.

Its men's and women's cross country
Cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...

 teams have produced a number of all-Americans and one national championship (Fellahs', 1980).

The Men and Women's Swimming and Diving program participates in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference is a college athletic conference which competes in the NCAA's Division III. As the name implies, member schools are located in the state of Minnesota...

 (MIAC) conference.

The football team won the conference championship in 1992 with a 9-1 record and received one of 16 bids to the Division III National Championship Tournament.

In 2006, the men's basketball team tied the University of St. Thomas for the conference championship and received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

In 2007, the women's golf program sent its first individual qualifier to the Division III Women's Golf NCAA Tournament.

In 2008, the men's soccer team won the conference championship, thereby receiving an automatic NCAA bid. They reached the Sweet 16 of the tournament, marking one of the most successful seasons in Carleton history.

The women's soccer team won the MIAC Playoffs in 2008, receiving an automatic NCAA bid. They attained the Elite 8 of the tournament, marking the first time in Carleton sports history.

Carleton hosted the only NCAA-sponsored metric football game in 1977. The game was dubbed the "Liter Bowl" and was measured in meters instead of yards. Carleton lost the game to St. Olaf
St. Olaf
-People:* Saint Olaf, King Olaf II of Norway* Saint Olaf of Sweden, King Olof Skötkonung-Institutions:*St. Olaf College, a private, liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota*St. Olaf Choir, the a cappella choir of St. Olaf College-Places:...

 by a score of 43-0. The event was the last to fill Carleton's Laird Stadium.

Club sports

The student-run Ultimate
Ultimate (sport)
Ultimate is a sport played with a 175 gram flying disc. The object of the game is to score points by passing the disc to a player in the opposing end zone, similar to an end zone in American football or rugby...

 frisbee
Frisbee
A flying disc is a disc-shaped glider that is generally plastic and roughly in diameter, with a lip. The shape of the disc, an airfoil in cross-section, allows it to fly by generating lift as it moves through the air while rotating....

 clubs have had the most competitive success; most notably, the school's top men's team, Carleton Ultimate Team
Carleton Ultimate Team
The Carleton Ultimate Team is the top men's ultimate frisbee team at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. A perennial national contender, the team won national championships in 2001, 2009 and 2011.-History:...

 (CUT), and women's team, Syzygy, are perennial national contenders in the USA Ultimate College Division. CUT has qualified annually for nationals since 1989, and won the National Championship in 2001, 2009, and 2011. Syzygy has qualified for women's nationals all but one year since 1987, and won the National Championship in 2000. The second men's Ultimate team, the Gods of Plastic (GOP)
Gods of Plastic
The Gods of Plastic is a collegiate men's ultimate team from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. They are the 2009 and 2010 UPA Division III National Champions, and won the inaugural 2007 Follywood Tournament. Also, they are "nothing to f@#k with."...

, won the 2009 and 2010 Division III National Championship tournaments, and the second women's Ultimate team, Eclipse, won Division III nationals in 2011.

In the fall of 2011, the women's rugby team was undefeated in their league and region. This led them on to win Division 3 national playoffs. After winning their league, the team was bumped up to Division 2, where they will compete in the fall of 2012.
The spring intramural softball league is known as Rotblatt, in honor of baseball player Marvin Rotblatt
Marvin Rotblatt
Marvin Rotblatt , nicknamed "Rotty", is a former left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball for the Chicago White Sox in the , and seasons. His ERAs in 1948 and 1950 were the highest in the majors...

. Once a year a day-long game, also known as Rotblatt, lasts the same number of innings as the number of years since Carleton's founding. In 1997, Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...

honored Rotblatt in its "Best of Everything" section with the award, "Longest Intramural Event."

In fiction and popular culture

  • Pamela Dean
    Pamela Dean
    Pamela Dean Dyer-Bennet is an American fantasy author whose most notable book is Tam Lin, based on the Child Ballad of the same name, in which the Scottish fairy story is set on a midwestern college campus loosely based on her alma mater, Carleton College in Minnesota.She was a member of the...

     set her fantasy novel Tam Lin
    Tam Lin (novel)
    Tam Lin is a 1991 contemporary fantasy novel by United States author Pamela Dean, who based it on the traditional Scottish border ballad "Tam Lin".-Plot introduction:The protagonist of Tam Lin is Janet Carter...

    (1991) at a fictional "Blackstock College", based on Dean's alma mater, Carleton. Dean's author's note begins, "Readers acquainted with Carleton College will find much that is familiar to them in the architecture, landcape, classes, terminology, and general atmosphere of Blackstock." Blackstock's buildings were given names that reference their counterparts at Carleton (e.g. Watson Hall becomes Holmes Hall, referring to Sherlock Holmes
    Sherlock Holmes
    Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...

    ; Burton Hall becomes Taylor Hall, referring to the marriages of Richard Burton
    Richard Burton
    Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...

     and Elizabeth Taylor
    Elizabeth Taylor
    Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...

    ).
  • The food fight scene from the film D3: The Mighty Ducks
    D3: The Mighty Ducks
    D3: The Mighty Ducks is the third film in The Mighty Ducks trilogy. It was produced by Avnet–Kerner Productions and Walt Disney Pictures, distributed by Buena Vista Distribution, and originally released to movie theaters on October 4, 1996.-Plot:The film opens with team captain Charlie Conway and...

    (1996) was shot in the Great Hall of Severance Hall.
  • Carleton College is mentioned in scene five of Wendy Wasserstein
    Wendy Wasserstein
    Wendy Wasserstein was an American playwright and an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University...

    's 1988 Pulitizer-Prize winning play, The Heidi Chronicles
    The Heidi Chronicles
    The Heidi Chronicles is a 1988 play by Wendy Wasserstein. The play won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.-Production history:A workshop production at Seattle Repertory Theatre was held in April 1988, directed by Daniel J. Sullivan....

    .
  • The Schiller bust was briefly featured on the TV show, The Colbert Report, on March 29, 2010.
  • On June 2, 2010, an unknown group of students transformed Goodsell Observatory
    Goodsell Observatory
    Goodsell Observatory is a building on the campus of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. It was constructed in 1887 and was, at the time, the largest observatory in the state of Minnesota. It was named for Charles Goodsell, who donated much of the land on which Carleton was founded...

     into a giant R2D2.
  • A group of Carleton students set the current Guinness world record for the largest number of people spooning
    Spooning
    Spooning or choreic hand is flexion and dorsal arching of the wrists and hyperextension of the fingers when the hands are extended sideways palms down....

     (529) on June 4, 2010.

Notable alumni

  • Cordenio Severance
    Cordenio Severance
    Cordenio Arnold Severance was an American lawyer from Minnesota. He co-founded the American Law Institute and served as President of the American Bar Association....

    , class of 1880, former president of the American Bar Association
    American Bar Association
    The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...

  • Thorstein Veblen
    Thorstein Veblen
    Thorstein Bunde Veblen, born Torsten Bunde Veblen was an American economist and sociologist, and a leader of the so-called institutional economics movement...

    , class of 1880, American economist
    Economics
    Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

     and author of The Theory of the Leisure Class
    The Theory of the Leisure Class
    The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions is a book, first published in 1899, by the Norwegian-American economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen while he was a professor at the University of Chicago....

    .
  • Pierce Butler
    Pierce Butler (justice)
    Pierce Butler was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1923 until his death in 1939...

    , class of 1887, Supreme Court
    Supreme Court of the United States
    The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

     Justice from 1923 to 1939.
  • Ernest Lundeen
    Ernest Lundeen
    Ernest Lundeen was an American lawyer and politician.Lundeen was born and raised on his father's homestead in Brooklyn Township of Lincoln County near Beresford, South Dakota. His father, C. H...

    , class of 1901, U.S. Representative from 1917–1919 and from 1933-1937. U.S. Senator from 1937 until his death in 1940.
  • Karl E. Mundt
    Karl Earl Mundt
    Karl Earl Mundt was an American educator and a Republican member of the United States Congress, representing South Dakota in the United States House of Representatives from 1938 to 1948 and in the United States Senate from 1948 to 1973.-Biography:Born in Humboldt, South Dakota, Mundt attended...

    , class of 1923, U.S. Representative from 1938 to 1948 and U.S. Senator from 1948 to 1973.
  • Robert K. Greenleaf
    Robert K. Greenleaf
    Robert K. Greenleaf was the founder of the modern Servant leadership movement.Greenleaf was born in Terre Haute, Indiana in 1904. After graduating from Carleton College in Minnesota, he went to work for AT&T. For the next forty years he researched management, development, and education...

    , class of 1926, corporate management expert, the founder of the Robert Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership.
  • Ben C. Duniway
    Ben C. Duniway
    Benjamin Cushing Duniway was an American federal judge.Duniway graduated from Stanford Law School in 1931 and was a Rhodes scholar in 1933. He practiced law in San Francisco for the next 26 years, except for the years 1942–1947 spent with the Federal Office of Price Administration. He was...

    , class of 1928, prominent American federal judge.
  • Warren P. Knowles
    Warren P. Knowles
    Warren Perley Knowles , born in River Falls, Wisconsin, was an American lawyer and politician from New Richmond, Wisconsin.-Biography:...

    , class of 1930, governor of Wisconsin from 1965 to 1971.
  • Ray Wendland
    Ray Wendland
    Dr. Ray Theodore Wendland was an American experimental petrochemist and academic.-Education:Wendland was born in Minneapolis, MN in July 1911, and educated at Carleton College in Northfield, MN, receiving a B.A. degree in Chemistry in 1933. From there, he matriculated to Iowa State University,...

    , class of 1933, experimental petrochemist and academic.
  • Sheldon B. Vance
    Sheldon B. Vance
    Sheldon Baird Vance , born in Crookston, Minnesota, was the U.S. ambassador to Zaire from May 27, 1969 through March 26, 1974...

    , class of 1939, U.S. ambassador to Zaire.
  • Melvin R. Laird
    Melvin R. Laird
    Melvin Robert Laird is an American politician and writer. Laird was a Republican congressman who also served as Richard Nixon's Secretary of Defense from 1969 to 1973. Laird urged Nixon to maintain a policy of withdrawing US soldiers from Vietnam...

    , class of 1942, President Nixon
    Richard Nixon
    Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...

    's Secretary of Defense from 1969 to 1973.
  • Anthony Downs
    Anthony Downs
    Anthony Downs is a scholar in public policy and public administration, and since 1977 is a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C..-Education:...

    , class of 1952, author of An Economic Theory of Democracy
    An Economic Theory of Democracy
    An Economic Theory of Democracy is a political science treatise written by Anthony Downs, published in 1957. The book set forth a model with precise conditions under which economic theory could be applied to non-market political decision-making. It also suggested areas of empirical research that...

    .
  • Hal Higdon
    Hal Higdon
    Hal Higdon is an American writer and runner. He has contributed to Runner's World magazine longer than any other writer. He is the author of 34 books, including the best-selling Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide...

    , class of 1953, runner and writer
  • Eleanor Kinnaird
    Eleanor Kinnaird
    Eleanor G. 'Ellie' Kinnaird is a Democratic member of the North Carolina General Assembly representing the state's 23rd Senate district since 1997. Her district includes constituents in Orange and Person counties...

    , class of 1953, North Carolina State Senator
  • Michael Armacost
    Michael Armacost
    Michael Hayden Armacost is a fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute. He previously was the president of the Brookings Institution from 1995-2002.-Diplomatic career:...

    , class of 1958, former Under Secretary of State (Policy), former ambassador to Japan and the Philippines, president of the Brookings Institution
    Brookings Institution
    The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States. One of Washington's oldest think tanks, Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and...

     from 1995–2002, and former chairman of the board of trustees.
  • Michael Gartner
    Michael Gartner
    Michael Gartner is an American journalist and businessman. He was President of the Iowa Board of Regents. He is a graduate of Carleton College and the New York University School of Law....

    , class of 1960, journalist
  • Jack Barnes
    Jack Barnes
    Jack Whittier Barnes is an American Communist and the National Secretary of the Socialist Workers Party. Barnes was elected the party's national secretary in 1972, replacing the retiring Farrell Dobbs. He had joined the SWP in the early 1960s as a student at Carleton College in Minnesota and...

    , class of 1961, the leader of the Socialist Workers Party
    Socialist Workers Party (United States)
    The Socialist Workers Party is a far-left political organization in the United States. The group places a priority on "solidarity work" to aid strikes and is strongly supportive of Cuba...

     (USA).
  • Joyce Hughes, class of 1961, first Black female tenure track law professor at a majority white law school. Currently professor of law at Northwestern University
    Northwestern University
    Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

  • Parker Palmer
    Parker Palmer
    Parker J. Palmer is an author, educator, and activist who focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality and social change.-Education:...

    , class of 1961, author
  • Garrick Utley
    Garrick Utley
    Garrick Utley is an American TV journalist. He established his career reporting about the Vietnam War and has the distinction of being the first full-time television correspondent covering the war on-site.-Early life:...

    , class of 1961, journalist, former host of Meet the Press
  • Walter Alvarez
    Walter Alvarez
    Walter Alvarez is a professor in the Earth and Planetary Science department at the University of California, Berkeley. He is most widely known for the theory that dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid impact, developed in collaboration with his father, Nobel Prize winning physicist Luis...

    , class of 1962, geologist credited with the theory that an asteroid impact was the likely cause of the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event
  • John A. Gale
    John A. Gale
    John Gale is from North Platte, Nebraska, and has been Nebraska's 26th Secretary of State since 2000. He is a member of the Republican Party.-Early life:...

    , class of 1962, Secretary of State of Nebraska
    Secretary of State of Nebraska
    The Secretary of State of Nebraska is one of the constitutional officers of the U.S. state of Nebraska. In Nebraska, the Secretary of State is elected for a four-year term. Vacancies are fill by appointment by the Governor....

     since 2000
  • John Lavine
    John Lavine
    John M. Lavine is an United States journalist and educator who became the Dean of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and a professor of media management and strategy at Medill and the Kellogg School of Management...

    , class of 1963, dean of Medill School of Journalism
    Medill School of Journalism
    The Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications is a constituent school of Northwestern University which offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. It has consistently been one of the top-ranked schools in Journalism in the United States...

  • Donella Meadows
    Donella Meadows
    Donella H. "Dana" Meadows was a pioneering American environmental scientist, teacher and writer. She is best known as lead author of the influential book The Limits to Growth, which made headlines around the world.- Life :Born in Elgin, Illinois, Meadows was educated in science, receiving a B.A...

    , class of 1963, lead author of Limits to Growth
    Limits to Growth
    The Limits to Growth is a 1972 book modeling the consequences of a rapidly growing world population and finite resource supplies, commissioned by the Club of Rome. Its authors were Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jørgen Randers, and William W. Behrens III. The book used the World3 model to...

  • Thomas Mengler
    Thomas Mengler
    Thomas Mengler, an expert in legal civil procedure and complex litigation, is dean of the law school at the University of St. Thomas . Mengler received a BA from Carleton College, a master's in Philosophy from The University of Texas at Austin and his Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of...

    , Dean of Law at University of St. Thomas
    University of St. Thomas (Minnesota)
    The University of St. Thomas is a private, Catholic, liberal arts, and archdiocesan university located in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States...

     and former dean of the University of Illinois College of Law
  • James Loewen
    James Loewen
    James W. Loewen is a sociologist, historian, and author whose best-known work is Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong .-Early life and career:...

    , class of 1964, historian and author of Lies My Teacher Told Me
    Lies My Teacher Told Me
    Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong is a 1995 book by sociologist James Loewen. It critically examines twelve American history textbooks and concludes that textbook authors propagate factually false, Eurocentric, and mythologized views of history...

  • Peter Schjeldahl
    Peter Schjeldahl
    Peter Schjeldahl, , is an American art critic, poet, and educator.Schjeldahl was born in Fargo, North Dakota. He grew up in small towns throughout Minnesota, and attended Carleton College and The New School...

    , class of 1965, art critic for The New Yorker
    The New Yorker
    The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...

  • Barrie M. Osborne
    Barrie M. Osborne
    Barrie M. Osborne is an American movie producer, executive producer, production manager and director.Osborne was born in New York City, New York, the son of Hertha Schwarz and William Osborne...

    , class of 1966, producer of the Lord of the Rings
    The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
    The Lord of the Rings is an epic film trilogy consisting of three fantasy adventure films based on the three-volume book of the same name by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The films are The Fellowship of the Ring , The Two Towers and The Return of the King .The films were directed by Peter...

    film trilogy.
  • Peter Tork
    Peter Tork
    Peter Tork is an American musician and actor, best known as a member of The Monkees.-Early life:Tork was born Peter Halsten Thorkelson in Washington, D.C.. Although he was born in 1942, many news articles report him as born in 1944 in New York City as this was the date and place given on early...

     of The Monkees
    The Monkees
    The Monkees are an American pop rock group. Assembled in Los Angeles in 1966 by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork,...

     was a student of English
    English language
    English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

     at Carleton from 1960 to 1963 until he dropped out to pursue music full-time. His name at that point was Peter Thorkelson.
  • Mary-Claire King
    Mary-Claire King
    Mary-Claire King is an American human geneticist. She is a professor at the University of Washington, where she studies the genetics and interaction of genetics and environmental influences on human conditions such as HIV, lupus, inherited deafness, and also breast and ovarian cancer...

    , class of 1967, human geneticist
  • Rush D. Holt, Jr.
    Rush D. Holt, Jr.
    Rush Dew Holt, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for . He is a member of the Democratic Party. He is currently the only Quaker in Congress.-Early life and education :Rush D. Holt was born to Rush D...

    , class of 1970, U.S. Representative for New Jersey's 12th congressional district since 1999.
  • Kai Bird
    Kai Bird
    Kai Bird is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning author and columnist, best known for his biographies of political figures.-Personal life:Bird was born in 1951 in Eugene, Oregon. His father was a U.S. Foreign Service officer, and he spent his childhood in Jerusalem, Beirut, Dhahran, Cairo and Bombay...

    , class of 1973, Pulitzer Prize
    Pulitzer Prize
    The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

    -winning biographer.
  • Karen Tei Yamashita
    Karen Tei Yamashita
    Karen Tei Yamashita is a Japanese American writer and Associate Professor of Literature at University of California, Santa Cruz, where she teaches creative writing and Asian American literature...

    , class of 1973, novelist.
  • Kirbyjon Caldwell
    Kirbyjon Caldwell
    Kirbyjon H. Caldwell is the pastor of the Windsor Village United Methodist Church, a 14,000-member megachurch in Houston, Texas, United States. He was one of President George W. Bush's most influential spiritual advisors.- Background :...

    , class of 1975, pastor of the Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas, and a spiritual advisor to Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
  • Patricia Collins Wrede
    Patricia Wrede
    Patricia Collins Wrede is an American fantasy writer from Chicago, Illinois.The eldest of five children, she graduated from Carleton College in 1974 with a BA in Biology, married James Wrede in 1976 , and obtained an MBA from University of Minnesota in 1977.She finished her first book in 1978,...

    , class of 1974, fantasy writer.
  • Pamela Dean
    Pamela Dean
    Pamela Dean Dyer-Bennet is an American fantasy author whose most notable book is Tam Lin, based on the Child Ballad of the same name, in which the Scottish fairy story is set on a midwestern college campus loosely based on her alma mater, Carleton College in Minnesota.She was a member of the...

    , class of 1975, fantasy writer.
  • Lincoln Child
    Lincoln Child
    Lincoln Child is an author of seventeen techno-thriller and horror novels. He often writes with Douglas Preston. Many of their novels have become bestsellers, and one, Relic, was adapted into a feature film...

    . class of 1979, writer of techno-thrillers
  • Jack El-Hai
    Jack El-Hai
    -Biography:El-Hai was the executive vice president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and winner in 2002 of an outstanding medical article as recognized by the June Roth Memorial Fund. He has been a contributor to the Atlantic Monthly, the Washington Post Magazine, American...

    , class of 1979, writer and journalist.
  • Jane Hamilton
    Jane Hamilton
    Jane Hamilton is an American novelist.Hamilton lives in Rochester, Wisconsin. She grew up in Oak Park, Illinois, the youngest of five children. She graduated from Carleton College in 1979 as an English major. Her first published works were short stories, "My Own Earth" and "Aunt Marj's Happy...

    , class of 1979, novelist and winner of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award.
  • Piotr Gajewski
    Piotr Gajewski
    Piotr Gajewski, a native of Poland, is the founder, artistic director and conductor of the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Washington, D.C., currently in residence at the Music Center at Strathmore in Rockville, Maryland...

    , class of 1981 founder, director and artistic director of the National Philharmonic Orchestra
    National Philharmonic Orchestra
    The National Philharmonic Orchestra was a British orchestra created exclusively for recording purposes. It was founded by RCA producer Charles Gerhardt and orchestra leader / contractor Sidney Sax due in part to the requirements of the Reader's Digest-History:...

    .
  • John F. Harris
    John F. Harris
    John F. Harris is an American political journalist and the editor in chief for Politico, an Arlington, Virginia based political news organization. With Politico executive editor, Jim VandeHei, Harris founded Politico for its launch on January 23, 2007...

    , class of 1985, Editor-in chief of The Politico
    The Politico
    The Politico is an American political journalism organization based in Arlington, Virginia, that distributes its content via television, the Internet, newspaper, and radio. Its coverage of Washington, D.C., includes the U.S. Congress, lobbying, media and the Presidency...

    .
  • Grace Llewellyn
    Grace Llewellyn
    Grace Llewellyn is an American educator, author, and publisher. Her work in the fields of youth liberation, unschooling and homeschooling is widely-regarded. She is the founder of and founder/director of .-Biography:...

    , class of 1986, author of The Teenage Liberation Handbook
    The Teenage Liberation Handbook
    The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education, originally published in 1991 by Grace Llewellyn, is a book about unschooling. Inspired by John Holt's educational views among others, the book encourages teenagers to leave full-time school and let their...

  • T.J. Stiles
    T.J. Stiles
    T. J. Stiles is a biographer who lives in San Francisco, California. His most recent book, The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt T. J. Stiles is a biographer who lives in San Francisco, California. His most recent book, The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt T....

    , class of 1986, winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize
    Pulitzer Prize
    The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

     for Biography
    Biography
    A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...

     and the 2009 National Book Award
    National Book Award
    The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...

     for Nonfiction
  • William G. Moseley
    William G. Moseley
    William G. Moseley is an author, scholar and professor of geography at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He is a development and human-environment geographer with particular expertise in political ecology, tropical agriculture, environment and development policy, livelihood security,...

    , class of 1987, writer and professor of geography
  • Stephen Six
    Stephen Six
    Stephen N. Six is an American attorney and former judge from Kansas who served as Kansas' 43rd Attorney General. He was nominated to serve as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on March 9, 2011...

    , class of 1988, Kansas Attorney General
    Kansas Attorney General
    The Attorney General of Kansas is a statewide elected official responsible for providing legal services to the state government of Kansas.-Divisions:* Criminal Justice* Civil Litigation* Consumer Protection* Concealed Carry...

    .
  • Jay Rubenstein
    Jay Rubenstein
    -Life:He graduated with a B.A. from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota in 1989, was a Rhodes Scholar, received an M.Phil. from the University of Oxford, and a Ph.D...

    , class of 1989, historian, recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship
  • Clara Jeffery
    Clara Jeffery
    Clara Jeffery is a co-editor of Mother Jones magazine . Jeffery was promoted to that position in August 2006, following the departure of Russ Rymer; previously she was the magazine's Deputy Editor, a position she had held for four years...

    , class of 1989, Editor of Mother Jones magazine.
  • Christopher Kratt
    Chris Kratt
    Christopher F. "Chris" Kratt is an American host of television programs Wild Kratts, Kratts' Creatures, Zoboomafoo, and Be the Creature, which airs on the National Geographic Channel....

    , class of 1992, TV and film producer and host.
  • Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl
    Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl
    Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl is a food and wine writer, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.- Personal life :Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl was born and raised in New York City and graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1988. She got her start in the world of food as a dishwasher. She graduated from Carleton...

    , class of 1992, James Beard Award-winning food writer.
  • Peter Gwinn
    Peter Gwinn
    Peter Gwinn is an American comedy writer and improviser from Evanston, Illinois. He attended Carleton College in Northfield, MN. He has taught at both the I.O. and Upright Citizens Brigade theaters and is the founder of the musical improv group Baby Wants Candy. He is the author of the 2003...

    , class of 1993, writer for The Colbert Report.
  • Paul Tewes
    Paul Tewes
    Paul Tewes is a Democratic strategist specializing in national political organizing in the United States.Tewes was the Iowa state director for Barack Obama's presidential campaign, and continued after the Iowa caucus to lead Obama's field operations in key states such as Nevada, Ohio and Pennsylvania...

    , class of 1993, political consultant.
  • Masanori Mark Christianson
    Masanori Mark Christianson
    Masanori Mark Christianson is a Japanese-Korean-American musician, art director, copywriter, visual artist and model...

    , class of 1998, musician/art director.
  • Tom Nelson
    Tom Nelson
    Tom Nelson is a Democratic politician from Kaukana, Wisconsin and the County Executive of Outagamie County, having taken office on April 19, 2011.- Background :...

    , class of 1998, former Wisconsin State Representative and Assembly Majority Leader
  • Anthony Myint
    Anthony Myint
    Anthony Eric Myint is a restaurateur, chef, author and food consultant based in the Mission in San Francisco, California. He is the founder of Mission Street Food, Mission Chinese Food, Mission Burger, and Commonwealth Restaurant...

    , class of 1999, Restaurateur, Founder of Mission Street Food, Mission Chinese Food and Commonwealth in San Francisco. Author of the book Mission Street Food.

Notable faculty

  • Ian Barbour
    Ian Barbour
    Ian Graeme Barbour, born 5 October 1923, is an American scholar on the relationship between science and religion. According to the Public Broadcasting Service his mid-1960s Issues in Science and Religion "has been credited with literally creating the contemporary field of science and religion."In...

    , professor emeritus, 1989–91 Gifford lecturer
    Gifford Lectures
    The Gifford Lectures were established by the will of Adam Lord Gifford . They were established to "promote and diffuse the study of Natural Theology in the widest sense of the term — in other words, the knowledge of God." The term natural theology as used by Gifford means theology supported...

     on religion and science, and winner of the 1999 Templeton Prize
    Templeton Prize
    The Templeton Prize is an annual award presented by the Templeton Foundation. Established in 1972, it is awarded to a living person who, in the estimation of the judges, "has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical...

     for Progress in Religion.
  • David Bryn-Jones
    David Bryn-Jones
    David Bryn-Jones was an historian, educator, Baptist minister, and biographer of U.S. Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg, who won the Nobel Peace Prize as one of the authors of the Kellogg-Briand Pact....

    , biographer of U.S. Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg
    Frank B. Kellogg
    Frank Billings Kellogg was an American lawyer, politician and statesman who served in the U.S. Senate and as U.S. Secretary of State. He co-authored the Kellogg-Briand Pact, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 1929..- Biography :Kellogg was born in Potsdam, New York, and his family...

    , taught history, economics, and international relations at Carleton from 1920 to 1951.
  • John Bates Clark
    John Bates Clark
    John Bates Clark was an American neoclassical economist. He was one of the pioneers of the marginalist revolution and opponent to the Institutionalist school of economics, and spent most of his career teaching at Columbia University.-Biography:Clark was born and raised in Providence, Rhode...

    , a famous American economist
    Economics
    Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

    , was a professor at Carleton, and taught Thorstein Veblen
    Thorstein Veblen
    Thorstein Bunde Veblen, born Torsten Bunde Veblen was an American economist and sociologist, and a leader of the so-called institutional economics movement...

    .
  • Frank Daniel
    Frank Daniel
    Frank Daniel was a film director, producer and screenwriter born in Kolín, Czechoslovakia . He is known for developing the sequence paradigm of screenwriting.-Life:...

    , Czech Born writer, producer, director, and teacher; developer of the sequence paradigm
    Sequence (film)
    In film, a sequence is a series of scenes which form a distinct narrative unit, usually connected either by unity of location or unity of time. For example a heist film might include an extended recruitment sequence in which the leader of the gang collects together the conspirators, a robbery...

     of screenwriting.
  • Burton Levin
    Burton Levin
    Burton Levin is the SIT Investment Visiting Professor of Asian Policy at Carleton College. He earned his MA in International Affairs at Columbia University and went on to work in the Foreign Service...

    , Former United States Consul General to Hong Kong
    Hong Kong
    Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

     and US Ambassador
    Ambassador
    An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....

     to Burma from May 1987 to September 1990, is currently the SIT Investment Visiting Professor of Asian Policy.
  • Laurence McKinley Gould
    Laurence McKinley Gould
    Laurence McKinley "Larry" Gould was an American geologist, educator, and polar explorer.Gould was born in Lacota, Michigan on August 22, 1896. After completing high school in South Haven, Michigan in 1914, he went to Boca Raton, Florida and taught grades 1 to 8 in a one-room school for two years,...

    , who was second-in-command to Richard E. Byrd on his first landmark expedition to Antarctica, served as a professor of geology
    Geology
    Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

     at Carleton and later as College President from 1945-1962.
  • Roy Grow
    Roy Grow
    Professor Roy Grow is the Kellogg Professor of International Relations at Carleton College. His specialty is the political economy of East Asia, specifically China and Southeast Asia...

    , Kellogg Professor of International Relations and the director of the International Relations, is a former military interpreter and analyst in Asia. He is often heard on programs such as Minnesota Public Radio's Midday.
  • Paul Wellstone
    Paul Wellstone
    Paul David Wellstone was a two-term U.S. Senator from the state of Minnesota and member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which is affiliated with the national Democratic Party. Before being elected to the Senate in 1990, he was a professor of political science at Carleton College...

    , a U.S. Senator
    United States Senate
    The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

     from Minnesota
    Minnesota
    Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

     from 1991 until his death in 2002, was a professor of political science at Carleton from 1969 to 1990.
  • Reed Whittemore
    Reed Whittemore
    Edward Reed Whittemore, Jr. is an American poet, biographer, critic, literary journalist and college professor. He was appointed the sixteenth and later the twenty-eighth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1964, and in 1984.-Biography:Born in New Haven, Connecticut,...

    , acclaimed American poet who taught English at Carleton.
  • H. Scott Bierman
    H. Scott Bierman
    H. Scott Bierman is an economist, author, and President of Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin.Bierman graduated from Bates College in Maine in 1977 with a B.A. in mathematics and economics and then received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia...

    , professor of economics, department chair, academic dean, game theory expert, currently President of Beloit College
    Beloit College
    Beloit College is a liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin, USA. It is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, and has an enrollment of roughly 1,300 undergraduate students. Beloit is the oldest continuously operated college in Wisconsin, and has the oldest building of any college...

     2009–present

Points of interest

  • Carleton College Cowling Arboretum
    Carleton College Cowling Arboretum
    Carleton College Cowling Arboretum consists of approximately 880 acres of land adjacent to Carleton College. It was created under the leadership of President Donald J. Cowling and Professor Harvey E. Stork in the 1920s. Professor Stork and Superintendent of Grounds D...

  • Goodsell Observatory
    Goodsell Observatory
    Goodsell Observatory is a building on the campus of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. It was constructed in 1887 and was, at the time, the largest observatory in the state of Minnesota. It was named for Charles Goodsell, who donated much of the land on which Carleton was founded...

  • The Cave
    The Cave (pub)
    The Cave is the oldest student-run pub in the United States. It is a favorite gathering place for students at Carleton College and is one of a limited number of music venues in Northfield, Minnesota. Founded in 1927, it is housed on the lowest level of the Margaret Evans Dormitory.The Cave is open...


Presidents

  1. James Woodward Strong
    James Strong (college president)
    Dr. James Woodward Strong, theologian and scholar, was the first president of Carleton College. Despite lifelong illness and injury, Strong was a highly active man throughout his life, juggling multiple professional and personal occupations....

    , 1870–1903
  2. William Henry Sallmon, 1903–1908
  3. Donald Cowling, 1909–1945
  4. Laurence McKinley Gould
    Laurence McKinley Gould
    Laurence McKinley "Larry" Gould was an American geologist, educator, and polar explorer.Gould was born in Lacota, Michigan on August 22, 1896. After completing high school in South Haven, Michigan in 1914, he went to Boca Raton, Florida and taught grades 1 to 8 in a one-room school for two years,...

    , 1945–1962
  5. John Nason, 1962–1970
  6. Howard R. Swearer, 1970–1977
  7. Robert Edwards
    Robert Hazard Edwards
    Robert Hazard Edwards is an American educator who was the seventh president of Carleton College and the thirteenth president of Bowdoin College.-Education and early career:...

    , 1977–1986
  8. David Porter, 1986–1987
  9. Stephen R. Lewis Jr., 1987–2002
  10. Robert A. Oden Jr., 2002–2010 (retired June 30, 2010)
  11. Steven G. Poskanzer
    Steven G. Poskanzer
    Steven Poskanzer is a college administrator. He served as chief of staff to the president at the University of Chicago for four years before serving 12 years at the State University of New York at New Paltz where he served as President from 2001 until 2010 when he was named the 11th President of...

    , 2010–present

External links

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