Currently@Carleton

The Quarterly Meeting for all staff will be held on Monday, November 7, at 10 a.m. in the Concert Hall. Mark your calendars now to come. See you there.

Natural Gas prices are anticipated to increase 50% or more this year. This means that the College’s energy cost could increase by $500,000 or more over last year’s cost. This increase will have a serious and unexpected impact on our College budget. The Administrative Council is asking every individual to help keep heating costs down and it has asked Facilities to set the temperature in College buildings at 68^oF this winter. In the next few weeks, Facilities staff will be in every building to calibrate the temperature control devices to ensure they are set correctly. Due to the condition and location of buildings, temperatures may vary. If you think your space is routinely hotter or colder than 68^oF, please contact Facilities at x4133 to adjust your room temperature. The College is also asking individuals not to use electrical space heaters. If you feel that your space requires additional heat to be appropriately comfortable, please call Facilities at x4133 to request an assessment of other alternatives. In order to help with this effort, Facilities has created a Web page with information about Carleton’s use of energy over the last 16 years and measures to conserve energy. There is also a place for you to submit conservation ideas and suggestions. Please visit the site and participate in saving the College valuable dollars this year. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Performance review process at Carleton...everything you want to know and more! Join us Tuesday, November 1 from noon to 1 p.m. in Sayles-Hill 251. Bring your lunch to a brown bag session featuring Karyn Jeffrey, Associate Director of Human Resources and Bonnie-Jean Mork, Director of Human Resources. Karyn and Bonnie will provide an overview about the performance review process, in general and at Carleton, answer questions submitted to Human Resources by SAC and The Forum members, and close with a question and answer session.

Internationally known Native American poet and musician Joy Harjo was initially a student of painting and theater, not music and poetry. Born in Oklahoma, Harjo is a multi-talented artist of the Mvskoke/Creek Nation. She began writing poetry when the national Indian political climate demanded singers and speakers, and was taken by the intensity and beauty possible in the craft. Her work is grounded in her relationship to the earth, on a physical, spiritual, and mythopoetic level, and her writing contains a disturbing mixture of darkness and beauty, at once a lament and a moving incantation. Her work provides a unique perspective and piquant examination of American culture from a native point of view. She has published seven books of poetry, including the recently released How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems, and is the recipient of several poetry awards, including the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. She is co-editor of an anthology of Native women’s writing, Reinventing the Enemy's Language: Native Women's Writing of North America, and author of the award-winning children's book, The Good Luck Cat. She later sought to combine the poetry with a music involving elements of tribal music, jazz, and rock. She has produced two music CD recordings and has performed internationally, from Norway’s Arctic Circle to Madras, India, and the Ford Theater in Los Angeles. A former member of the National Council on the Arts, she narrated the National Geographic Society’s Emmy Award-winning Navajo Codetalkers and was featured on the Bill Moyers The Power of the Word series. Harjo is presently a professor of creative writing at the University of New Mexico. Her presentation, "How We Became Human: A Performance," will take place in Skinner Memorial Chapel at 10:50 a.m.

You and your guest are cordially invited to join your colleagues and friends at the annual Carleton College Holiday Party in Severance Great Hall on Friday, December 9 from 3 to 5 p.m.

Throughout this academic year, the Business Office will print checks once each week. Check requests received by the Accounts Payable office before noon on Wednesday will be processed on Thursday. Checks will be available for pick-up after 3 p.m. each Thursday. Please contact us if you require special handling for your check request.

As some of you may have noticed, the Sarouk carpets have not been in Great Hall as of late. This is due to repair work needed to prevent curling of the rug edges and deterioration of the underlying pads. Unfortunately, the pad replacement and expensive repairs are not possible at this time, so the carpets have been stored for safety and preservation reasons. Repairs will be completed as funding becomes available.

You are invited to attend the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) service of celebration on Tuesday, November 1 at 7 p.m. in Sayles-Hill Balcony. There will be a traditional Dia de los Muertos altar and a service with poems, singing, and dancing to reflect on the meaning of the day in Latino cultures and to remember the lives of loved ones. Mementos and objects of remembrance are welcomed for placement on the altar. Mexican hot chocolate and sweets will be served afterwards.

Please join us for the Muslim Eid al Fitr Celebration set for Friday, November 4 at 5 p.m. in the Chapel. Eid al Fitr marks the end of Ramadan, a month-long time of fasting. Students from the Carleton Islamic Association will lead the service and prayers, and dinner follows. All are welcome for this important Muslim holiday celebration.

The 2005 Forkosh Family Lecture in Judaic Studies titled, "Has Feminism Really Changed American Religion: A Jewish Case Study," will be presented by Riv-Ellen Prell on Wednesday, November 2, at 8 p.m. in Great Hall. Professor Prell is among the country's most distinguished scholars of Jews and Judaism in post-war America. Her work spans social anthropology, American popular culture, religious studies, and gender studies. Prell invites her audiences to appreciate the complexity of evolving gender roles and religious identities.

Carleton College Goodsell Observatory will hold an open house on Friday, November 4, from 7 to 9 p.m., if the sky is clear. View stars, nebulas, planets, and the new visual installation "Optic Nerve," by artist and Professor Linda Rossi. Dress warm! Cancelled if cloudy. Open houses are held on the first Friday of each month.

A roundtable discussion with Kelly Connole, Carlos Gonzalez, and Kate Strathmann ’06 will be held on Wednesday, November 2 from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Gould Library Athenaeum. Join award-winning Star Tribune photographer Carlos Gonzalez, Carleton professor Kelly Connole, and Carleton student Kate Strathmann ’06 for a gallery discussion inspired by the exhibition "Portraits of Home: Families in Search of Shelter in Greater Minnesota,"a now on view in the Gould Library. The following questions will be addressed: How do artists become involved with community-based projects? What are the challenges of working with diverse communities? What makes a community-based art project succeed—or fail? How can projects like Portraits of Home raise awareness of social and political issues?