Carleton College News

Carleton's Arts Union is featured in Finance & Commerce's new program: On the Boards – a semi-monthly round up of upcoming Minnesota building projects designed by firms belonging to the American Institute of Architects Minnesota.  

The Smithsonian Magazine ran an article in its September 2010 edition about John Hasse '71, who serves as a music curator at the Smithsonian Museum and whose unofficial title is "America’s unofficial jazz ambassador-at-large." The article tells about Hasse's founding of Jazz Appreciation Month, his work as a music curator at the National Museum of American History and that he recently teamed with an international panel of experts for the upcoming release of Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology, a six-CD, 111-track set that reconceives, updates and expands the 1973 Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz.

Gayle McJunkin, currently interim vice president for external affairs and associate vice president for external relations and director of development, is quoted in the Aug. 19 edition of Inside Higher Ed about Carleton completing the Breaking Barriers, Creating Connections: The Campaign for Carleton. The article focuses on how schools like Carleton, which launched campaigns and then watched the economy take a nosedive, were still able to reach its goals. For Carleton, McJunkin said in the article, Board of Trustee giving was paramount, led by the $25 million given by the Wallace Weitz '70 and Barbara Veach Weitz '70 P'96 '99 '02 Family. “This donor said, 'I’m not going to do it unless we change the culture of philanthropy,' ” she said of the Weitz Challenge to get the Trustees to give $100 million of the $300 million goal.

Rachel Foran '12 penned a guest blog entry for the August 17 Washington Post edition. Foran, whose doing an internship with Interfaith Youth Core this summer and is a religion major, writes in "The Faith Divide" blog about finding commonality between different religions, using her experiences as a Christian and comparing it with the messages she hears from Brother Ali, a Muslim rap artist. She writes "…I relate to the message of his music because it has been informed and shaped by his faith. Our stories may seem contrary, but we share a common vision and a common understanding. Religion should not be confined to media reports of extremism and violence. It can be a powerful force for good."

On Tuesday, September 7, Carleton College welcomes the Class of 2014 to campus. There are 518 students in the class, selected from a pool of 4,885 applicants. The students represent 45 states and 23 countries, with 100 students coming from Minnesota, followed by Illinois (51), California (49), New York (32), Wisconsin (19), Texas and Washington (16 each).

Steven Schier, the Dorothy H. and Edward C. Congdon Professor of Political Science, told the Christian Science Monitor that the California U.S. Senate race just may hold the key to which party will control that legislative body after the 2010 elections. “The 2010 California Senate race is very important nationally,” he said. “If the GOP is to gain control of the Senate, they must win the California Senate race.” The race, between Democrat incumbent Barbara Boxer and Republican challenger Carly Fiorina, may well hinge on which candidate can sell their jobs plan to a downtrodden California economy and its voters. “The job creation issue will clearly separate Boxer and Fiorina,” says Schier. “Boxer will likely argue for the effectiveness of the 2009 stimulus spending and urge more such spending to resuscitate the economy. Fiorina will brand the stimulus a mistake and argue for tax cuts and deficit reduction as a means to restoring jobs.”

Carleton's chief investment officer, Jason Matz, is quoted in the Aug. 13 edition of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, on the fall and rise of college and university endowments both at Carleton and state-wide, and how the down economy has actually helped higher education institutions access areas of capital it was unable to prior to this recession. “We took the opportunity in the fall of 2009 to upgrade about 10 to 15 percent of our total portfolio with managers that are very, very, good,” he said. “We’ve been able to initiate new relationships with funds that we may not have had access to when capital was easy to come by.” [Please note a subscription may be required to view the full text of the article.]

Carleton's career center's mentor externship program is prominently mentioned in an Aug. 11 article in Forbes, authored by Albion College (Mich.) president Donna Randall. She makes the case that a liberal arts education is excellent preparation for a variety of careers, and calls for liberal arts school to stay true to its mission. "We can and should commit ourselves more completely to providing students with education that encompasses both the timelessness of broad-based study in the arts and sciences, and the timeliness of practical preparation--leading to productive careers and satisfying lives."

Mark Michelson '70, chairman of the IMA Asia CEO Forum in Hong Kong, wrote an opinion piece for the Aug. 10 edition of the Wall Street Journal. The article, entitled "'One Economy,' Yes. But Keep 'Two Systems'" speaks about the challenge of integrating Hong Kong's economy with that of China. [To read the full text of the article, you must have a subscription.] Michelson argues that closer integration with China shouldn't come at the expense of Hong Kong's competitive advantages.

Carleton President Steven G. Poskanzer is quoted in the Aug. 10 edition of Inside Higher Ed in an article entitled "United Front." The piece covers a two-day conference co-sponsored by the American Council on Education (ACE) and the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) in which the group examined the relationship between the business leader and academic leader at colleges and universities. Poskanzer told the group he felt it very important that the two sides keep the difficult discussions private, making public a shared agenda. “These two individuals must present a united front to the rest of the world,” he said.

The August edition of the popular Martha Stewart Living Magazine highlights Burton and Lily Levin Professor of Chinese Qiquang Zhao's newest book "Do Nothing & Do Everything: An Illustrated New Taoism" (Paragon House Publishers, April 2010).