1942 | Japanese-Americans evacuated from West Coast. Carleton agrees to accept interned Nisei students continuing their wartime educations. |
1942 | Carleton buys land near Stanton to build an airport to be used for military training. |
1942-1945 | War brings major disruptions in campus life. As male enrollment plummets, women occupy virtually all important student offices and, in 1944-45, the previously male West Side dorms. In 1943 and 1944 Carleton hosts several Army units, which receive instruction in engineering, aeronautics, meteorology, and modern languages. Altogether over 1,500 Carleton men and women serve in the armed forces during WWII; 55 men lose their lives. |
1943 | Male enrollment drops fro 455 to 93. Wally Ulrich '45 wins NCAA men's golf championship tournament. |
1943 | Dean Lodge, off-campus housing for women since 1919, burns in a fire. |
1945 | Popular Carleton Geology Prof. Laurence M. Gould, a University of Michigan alumnus and noted polar explorer, succeeds President Cowling, who retires after leading Carleton through two World Wars and a Depression. Gould had been a member of the faculty since 1932. |
1946-1950 | Influx of veterans pushes enrollment over 1,000. |
1947-1955 | Pine Hill Village, student housing for married veterans, located across Lyman Lakes. |
April 1948 | Student-run radio station KARL begins broadcasts. (Changed to KRLX in 1974/75.) |
May 1948 | The World premier of Bertolt Brecht's Caucasian Chalk Circle is performed in Nourse Theater by the Carleton Players, directed by Henry Goodman. |
1948 | Comprehensive exams are introduced for seniors. |
1948 | Students vote to abolish last of the literary societies. |
1949 | The first African-American student to earn a degree from Carleton graduates. |
1949 | Dedication of Boliou Memorial Art Building. |
1949 | The Carleton-in-China program ends as communist China is closed to such endeavors. In 1951 a Carleton-in-Japan program is initiated, first at a school in Osaka, later at Kyoto's Doshisha University. |
1950 | "Knights" adopted as varsity sports team names. |
1953 | Dedication of the remodeled Willis Memorial Union. (It actually opened in 1954) |
1954 | The Carleton's Airfield is sold. |
1956 | Dedication of the new Library. |
1957 | Scoville Memorial Library is remodeled and rededicated as Scoville Hall. |
1958 | Musser and Myers halls are erected. |
1958 | Student enrollment permanently exceeds 1,000. |
1958 | Carole Pushing '61 win the NCAA women's golf crown. |
1958 | Carleton joins with nine other liberal arts institutions to form the Associate Colleges of the Midwest. Programs sponsored by ACM will greatly increase the range of off-campus programs, both foreign and domestic, available to students in future years. |
1959/60 | Founding of the literary quarterly The Carleton Miscellany. |
1960 | Carleton begins a student exchange program with Spelman College, Atlanta's historically Black liberal arts college for women. |
1960 | The first Black female student to earn a degree from Carleton graduates. |
1961 | Dedication of Olin Hall of Science. |
1961 | Williams Hall is razed. |
1962 | Carleton's fifth president, John W. Nason '26, is selected after Laurence M. Gould announces his desire to return to classroom teaching in Arizona. Nason is the first Carleton alumnus to be named president. A former Carleton Rhodes Scholar, former president of Swarthmore College, and president of the Foreign Policy Association, Nason will see the College through the balance of the turbulent 60s. |
1962 | Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller makes a legendary appearance during the fourth quarter of a football game, dangling from a helicopter by a 50 foot chain. |
1962 | A new men's dorm is occupied in September. In 1963 it is named for Horace Goodhue, Jr. |
1963 | A group of students found the Reformed Druids of North America, initially as a protest against mandatory chapel. Carleton's religious requirement is abolished in 1964. |
1964 | Carleton's dairy herd is auctioned off. |
1964 | Carleton establishes the Asian studies program. |
1964 | Dedication of a new men's gymnasium, later known as West Gym |
1965 | A Carleton minority groups scholarship program is instituted. |
1965 | Carleton's Computer Date Night receives national publicity. |
1965 | Dedication of a women's gymnasium, the Elizabeth Cowling Recreation Center. |
1966 | The College hosts its first-annual summer ABC (A Better Chance) program, through which promising teens from underprivileged backgrounds prepare for entry into top high schools. Carleton students serve as resident tutors for this program, which continues into the 70s. |