The Dec. 7 edition of the Star Tribune looked at Carleton and St. Olaf Colleges' efforts at finding ways to collaborate and save both institutions money. Higher education reporter Jenna Ross spoke with both colleges' presidents, St. Olaf's David Anderson and Carleton's Steve Poskanzer. "Geography and history have dealt our institutions a hand with a special card that we've never really played," Poskanzer said. But don't expect the two colleges to share football fields or combine choirs, he said, laughing. "This is no merger." Thanks to a $50,000 Mellon Foundation grant, representatives from both schools have visited colleges including Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore, which offer cross-registration, and closer by, the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University, which claim different presidents, campuses and traditions but share a single academic program.

Bob Pagel's hiring as Carleton's football coach was covered by the Rochester Post-Bulletin. Pagel, who coached the Knights on an interim basis this past year, is the Knights' 17th head coach and will also serve as an assistant professor in the Physical Education, Athletics and Recreation (PEAR) Department. Pagel is originally from the Rochester area, playing high-school football in Eyota, Minn. Read more about Pagel on the Carleton Athletics website's press release on the hiring.

A Dec. 1 article in the New York Times profiles former Carleton student and current White House chief of staff Jacob Lew and talks about the key role he will play in the showdown over the "fiscal cliff" budget negotiations. Lew, who started his academic career at Carleton before leaving after a year to work for Manhattan congresswoman Bella Abzug. He later completed his degree at Harvard and earned a law degree from Georgetown. He previously held the budget director's position under President Obama, a position he also held in the Clinton Administration.

Steven Schier, the Dorothy H. and Edward C. Congdon Professor of Political Science, is quoted in the Nov. 30 edition of the Miami Herald and many other newspapers regarding the deadlines set forth by Republicans long ago in regards to the scheduled tax increases and budget cuts. These automatic "triggers"  have created the "fiscal cliff" scenario that could occur after the New Year unless Congress and the White House can come to a budget agreement. It's a scenario, according to Schier, that the Republicans miscalculated. “Republicans set up the deadlines feeling voters would move in their direction. But in the last election, they didn’t move in that direction,” he said.

Joel Weisberg, the Herman and Gertrude Mosier Stark Professor of Physics and Astronomy and the Natural Sciences, was featured in a Nov. 26 article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press about his involvement with "The Last Pictures" project. Weisberg designed a time map that was attached to a silicon disk that contains 100 images selected and/or taken by artist Trevor Paglen to represent humanity. The disk, and the accompanying time map, was launched into orbit from a launch pad in Kazakhstan on Nov. 20 aboard the  EchoStar XVI satellite by the Dish Network. There's no appreciable atmospheric drag that high up, so in theory the satellite and its message to the future "will probably be up there until the sun swallows up the Earth, which will be in 5 billion years," Weisberg said. The article also ran in the Northfield News on Saturday, Dec. 8. 

Steven Schier, the Dorothy H. and Edward C. Congdon Professor of Political Science, told Bloomberg Businessweek on Nov. 11 that the recent election results might mean little change in the political landscape.  "The national government has not functioned well of late yet this election returned to power the same leaders in the House, Senate and presidency who have presided over little recent progress," he said. "That makes the prospects for breakthrough reforms that solve pressing national problems murky at best. It was a status quo election when the country needs far more than status quo solutions."

Raul Raymundo '87 was recently featured in a New York Times article for his work as cofounder and director of The Resurrection Project, which serves Latino families on the South Side of Chicago. The Resurrection Project has been recognized for its new student dormitory, believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S.--rather than targeting any particular college, the dorm is meant for any and all commuter students from the South Side who need a safe and quiet place to eat, sleep and study. The Resurrection Project, which Raymundo founded in a church basement in 1989, has developed a significant support apparatus including over 600 low-income housing units, two child-care centers, a health clinic at a local school, youth recreation programs and support services for immigrants.

Megan Meyer '07 was recently featured in The Huffington Post for her work as executive director of A Hand in Health, a Minnesota-based nonprofit focused on providing medical assistance. Meyer participated in the "African Book Walk: A Hike Across The Gambia to End Their Book Famine," an event created by Books for Africa to raise awareness of the lack of education in The Gambia. A year into the project, organizers have shipped more than 198,000 books to the students of The Gambia. That is 20 percent towards the one million book goal. The books range from elementary and secondary school science books to university-level books to law books supplied by Thomson Reuters.

Ohio and Virginia will be the key states to tell how the Presidential election will fall, according to Steven Schier, the Dorothy H. and Edward C. Congdon Professor of Political Science,in his quotes to Reuters. "I wouldn't expect Ohio or Virginia to be called early, but if it starts to look clear one way or another that would be an early harbinger," he said. The story was picked up my msnbc.com, among other national media outlets.

The Oct. 19 edition of the Star Tribune's "On Campus" section covered Carleton's Charles Dickens marathon, where student, staff and faculty read "David Copperfield" over a two-day period. Higher education beat reporter Jenna Ross noted that the event had "75 people reading 871 pages, mostly in 30-minute chunks, over 37 hours." Arnab Chakladar, an assistant professor of English, who organized the reading, said "I was there from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., and it was hopping."

Claire Yanjing Du '08 is quoted in an Oct. 1 piece in Time Magazine about the rise in popularity of the liberal-arts experience in China. The article covered the fact that liberal arts institutions are starting in that country and how top tier schools like Carleton are recruiting the country heavily, thanks in part to Du organizing a tour of the country for schools like Carleton, Williams and Amherst, exposing students there to the type of experience she had as a Carl. "Chinese students are dying for a nonconventional, more liberal approach to education," she says.The article is available to paid subscribers only.

Julie Neiworth, professor of psychology and director of Carleton's neuroscience program, was featured on the USA Today website on Sept. 29 for her work in replicating the studies of noted former Harvard researcher Marc Hauser. The piece, titled "Scientists revisit a monkey study gone wrong," talks about how Neiworth was conflicted about using Hauser's research in her classroom after his findings came under fire and he eventually was charged with research misconduct. "I stopped teaching his articles, but there was a more fundamental problem," she said in the piece. "I needed to know if I believed (Hauser's) results, or not. And my lab was about the only one in the country that could find out if they were right or wrong." Neiworth secured National Institute of Health funding in support of the project. Her overall research has included nearly 100 undergraduate collaborators and resulted in more than a dozen publications and presentations.