Five members of the Carleton College faculty have been awarded tenure by the Board of Trustees, as announced by Beverly Nagel, Dean of the College.

JE Dunn Construction Company, builders of Carleton's newest dormitories—Cassat and Memorial Halls, were honored at the 2010 Minnesota Construction Association Awards of Excellence Gala for their work on the two campus buildings. The company was honored with two top awards at the gala event held January 27, 2010, at the Minneapolis Golf Club.

The College's Cassat and Memorial Halls, a 93,000-square-foot housing complex with two four-story buildings and 200 beds were named Best New Project (total value more than $10 million) as well as Best Green/Sustainable Project, highlighting the project's Gold LEED construction featuring student-accessible energy monitoring equipment and auto-sensor high-efficiency lighting, rain gardens and local materials usage, and abundant shared spaces.

The Minnesota Construction Associate Awards program recognizes and honors the quality construction companies that serve the upper Midwest.

The Carleton Board of Trustees voted at its February meeting to plan to move ahead with the Arts Union project. The new design, projected to cost $42 million, will house the departments of Theater and Dance, and Cinema and Media Studies. Carleton is also planning a number of smaller spring and summer projects, most notably the razing of College-owned houses at 100 Union Street (Reynolds) and at 111 Maple Street (Watson). The College currently has no plans to re-use either of those areas.

Carleton College has been named to the 2009 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement.

Carleton’s Information Technology Services (ITS) department is sponsoring a personal and home electronics equipment recycling day on Saturday, March 20 from 9 a.m. – 12 noon. The event’s partner, Material Processing Corporation (MPC), allows local residents to recycle personal and/or home computing equipment for a small fee. MPC will have a large truck available for local residents to drop their items in the parking lot south of Laird Stadium, which sits adjacent to Highway 19.

On Friday, Feb. 27, the Carleton, St. Olaf and Northfield communities united to support Haiti at the Singing for Haiti, or Chanté pou Ayiti, concert. The event, organized by the Haiti Justice Alliance of Northfield, St. Olaf students and Haiti Relief-Carleton, raised $3,500 for victims of the earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12.

Cathryn Manduca and the Carleton College Science Education Resource Center have been awarded the Science Prize for Online Resources in Education (SPORE) for their website creation, On the Cutting Edge, which fosters the sharing of ideas about the geosciences, both in terms of teaching and education throughout the field. In an era in which knowledge of geoscience is fundamental to handling such pressing issues as climate change and environmental degradation, the web site fosters the sharing of ideas about teaching with the aim of improving education throughout the field.

Last Tuesday’s “Who is Northfield?” panel discussion marked the culmination of the ACT Center’s annual series of civic engagement events.  Each year, the ACT center holds a series of discussions that seek to engage the college with the Northfield community.  This year’s theme was “Food: From Local to Global.”  Over the course of February, the ACT center held food-themed documentaries, panel discussions, talks with alumni who have gone into the food industry, and a tour of Midtown Global Market in Minneapolis.

This year's panel...

Carleton College has announced that the family of Wally (’70), Barbara (’70), Katie (’96), Roger (’99), and Drew (’02) Weitz and their spouses Watie White (’93), Kate, and Meredith (’02) has pledged $15 million towards the completion of the College’s Arts Union project, located at the site of the former Northfield middle school. The $15 million gift is part of the Weitz Family Foundation’s challenge to Carleton’s Board of Trustees. Once the trustee challenge is completed by Carleton’s board, triggering the additional $15 million gift, the Weitz family would become the largest single, family donor in College history at $25 million.

The public is invited to join Carleton College Arboretum Director Nancy Braker and former Arboretum Manager Myles Bakke as they search for the signs and tracks of winter animal activities in the College’s Cowling Arboretum on Sunday, February 14, from 2 to 4 p.m.

Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to a seat in the United States Congress as Representative of the 5th Congressional District of Minnesota, will speak at Carleton College on Friday, February 12 at 4 p.m. in the Severance Great Hall. Rooted in community activism and civil rights, Ellison has served as a strong Democratic voice in opposition of troop increases in Iraq, providing aid to victims of genocide in Darfur, championing stem cell research and health care reform, and raising the minimum wage.  After his presentation, Ellison will lead a follow-up question session and reception. This event is free and open to the public. 

On Saturday, February 13 at 7:30 p.m., Carleton College students will present their annual performance of Eve Ensler’s award-winning play “The Vagina Monologues” in the College’s Skinner Memorial Chapel. This even is free and open to public—all members of the community are welcome.