On Tuesday, July 28 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., the Carleton College Cowling Arboretum and the Cannon River Watershed Partnership will host a field trip designed to educate landowners about efforts that can be made to improve and maintain the water quality of the Cannon River. Understanding the connection between land use and water quality is an important first step in making a change. This event is free and open to the public.

Laurence Cooper, Carleton College associate professor of political science, has been awarded a $25,000 grant from the "Enduring Questions" program of the National Endowment for the Humanities to develop a new freshman seminar. The proposed seminar, “Cosmos or Chaos: Views of the World, Views of the Good Life,” will address the question of what it means to live well.

Carleton College recently announced that the proceeds raised from their ninth annual “Lighten-Up” Garage Sale totaled over $23,000 in support of area non-profit organizations. The proceeds will be split evenly between the Northfield Union of Youth (The Key), the Northfield Special Olympics, and Project Friendship.

Carleton issued the following clarification to a piece in the Friday, June 19 edition of the New York Times entitled "For Colleges, Small Cuts Add Up to Big Savings" in regards to the College's switch from a six-course to a five-course teaching load for its faculty.

Carleton has received a $10,000 grant from the Xcel Energy Foundation to fund its “Natural Science in Natural Lands: Improving the Carleton Arboretum” project. The grant will fund the College's new project, which will heighten the educational and recreational value of the Cowling Arboretum. The grant will help provide training for Arboretum staff on state-of-the-art restoration methods, will increase opportunities to participate in restoration activities for everyone on campus and in Northfield, and provide new signs to help visitors enjoy the Arboretum.

The Carleton College Board of Trustees recently approved the appointments of six professors to endowed chair positions at the College. Deborah Ann Appleman was named the Hollis L. Caswell Professor of Educational Studies; Becky Boling was named the Stephen R. Lewis Jr. Professor of Spanish and the Liberal Arts; Jack Goldfeather was named the William H. Laird Professor of Mathematics, Computer Science and the Liberal Arts; Fred Hagstrom was named the Rae Schupack Nathan Professor of Art; Roger Reid Jackson was named the John W. Nason Professor of Asian Studies and Religion; and Adeeb Khalid was named the Jane and Raphael Bernstein Professor of Asian Studies and History.

Deciding to choose what major to declare was a difficult process for Carleton sophomore Kelsea Dombrovski. Biology? Too science-y. History? Not right either. She finally settled on American Studies, reluctantly submitting her orange major declaration form to the registrar. Now, thanks to a recent decision by the College, Dombrovski’s woes are over. Last month, the Carleton faculty voted 76-9 to approve Environmental and Technology Studies (ENTS) as a major, which she promptly declared.

The parents of Wade Johnson '07, Susan and Bruce Johnson, issued a statement in regards to the recent death of their son. The family wished for the statement to be shared with the greater Carleton community as well. Johnson's body was recovered on Monday morning in an avalanche on Mount Gongga in Western Sichuan Province of China.

Carleton will hold a community gathering for faculty, staff and students to reflect on the life of recent graduate Wade Bruce Johnson ’07, on Monday, June 8 at 2:45 p.m. in the College’s Skinner Memorial Chapel. Johnson had been missing since May 20 and his body was recovered early Monday morning, June 8, in an avalanche during a recent hiking trek on Mount Gongga in Western Sichuan Province of China. Johnson, a 2007 graduate of Carleton who earned Phi Beta Kappa honors as a chemistry major, was a member of the Carleton Association of Nature and Outdoor Enthusiasts (CANOE House) and a staff member of the rock-climbing wall during his time at Carleton. The College will also host a full memorial service for Johnson, tentatively set for Friday, June 19 at 10:30 a.m. at Skinner Memorial Chapel.

Carleton College will award the Bachelor of Arts degree to 506 graduating seniors at the 135th annual commencement exercises on Saturday, June 13 at 9:30 a.m. on the Bald Spot, the lawn west of Hulings Hall on the Carleton campus. In the event of severe weather, commencement will be held indoors at the Recreation Center.

Carleton’s Ninth Annual “Lighten-Up” Garage Sale will take place in the West Gym on Thursday, June 18 and Friday, June 19 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. (with a bag sale beginning at noon on the second day of the sale). This popular event, sponsored by Acting in the Community Together (ACT), the College’s center for community service and civic engagement, is open to the public.

Carleton College proudly announces that it will confer two honorary degrees at its 135th commencement ceremony on Saturday, June 13. Acclaimed concert pianist and Northfield native Peter Basquin and philanthropic businesswoman Annie S.C. Wu will each receive an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the College. Each honorary degree recipient will then address the graduating Class of 2009.