Currently@Carleton

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The Diversity Initiative Group (DIG), a team of committed staff, faculty, and students chaired by President Oden, served the College over a period of ten years by addressing the challenges facing community members on issues of diversity. Among its many accomplishments, DIG created a diversity mission statement that was approved by the faculty, College Council, and the Board of Trustees in 2007.

A subcommittee of DIG, with faculty, staff, and student members, subsequently developed and implemented a campus-wide climate survey (guided by Rankin and Associates Consulting) during the 2007-08 academic year. Dr. Sue Rankin analyzed and presented the survey results to the campus community in September 2008, and members of DIG held focus group meetings after that presentation and also in January 2009 to discuss survey results and generate ideas for moving forward.

College Council commissioned a task force to restructure DIG to best meet the challenges presented by the campus climate survey results and approved the new CEDI structure in November 2008. The CEDI committee would like to thank and acknowledge the members of DIG and previous diversity-related committees for their many contributions toward building community and improving intercultural dialogue here on campus.

CEDI Leadership

The current CEDI Leadership Board consists of the following members:

• Co-Chairs: Becky Zrimsek ’89, Director of Alumni Affairs, and Cindy Blaha, Professor of Physics and Astronomy
• Student Representatives: Helen Ashton ’10, International Relations major, and Sam Ritter ’10, History and Religion major
• SAC Representative: Jill Tollefson, Administrative Assistant in Religion and Philosophy

Task Force Leaders:

• Workplace Equity and Climate: Ann Iijima ’72, Associate Director of Alumni Affairs
• Learning Environment—Inside the Classroom: Arjendu Pattanayak, Associate Professor of Physics
• Learning Environment—Outside the Classroom: Julie Thornton, Associate Dean of Students
• Sexual Harassment and Assault: Kaaren Williamsen, Director of Gender and Sexuality Center and LGBT Advisor

Further information about our board members and lists of the Task Force members are available on our CEDI Web site.

CEDI Mission

CEDI was given the following four charges:

• Assessment of campus climate survey results and ideas generated in further focus group discussions
• Coordination of work already happening in multiple divisions in order to identify duplication of effort, clarify common procedures and grievance processes, and initiate new projects to specifically address priorities identified in survey results
• Communication with the campus about the progress, successes, and challenges faced by CEDI in its mission
• Development of a strategic plan, including both short-term and long-range goals, for Carleton to improve community and promote equity and diversity on campus

We are committed to recommending and facilitating change based on our mission and input from the community.

Immediate Next Steps

The CEDI Leadership Board will meet every other week during spring term to work on our immediate next steps outlined below. Individual Task Forces will meet separately to work on their priorities and action plans. Meeting summaries will be posted online.

• Identify the top priority issues based on survey results and follow-up discussions, and choose several immediate actions to begin addressing these issues
• Dr. Rankin will facilitate a workshop in May with the CEDI team to develop Carleton’s strategic plan, including short-term and long-range goals, to improve Community, Equity, and Diversity on campus.
• Post a history of accomplishments and changes at Carleton over time, online

All members of the CEDI committee are eager to hear your ideas and questions. Please feel free to contact us. We welcome your input and ask for your support as we work together to build a better Carleton.

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Lansky was born on the third-world island of Manhattan, grew up in the arctic tundra of Minnesota and attended Colorado College (with a few random classes from London University and Harvard), and majored in a subject he can no longer recall.  He currently makes his base camp in Stockholm, Sweden, with his wife and their three children.

In addition to writing his nationally-syndicated travel column, Lansky has hosted an hour-long travel documentary for the Discovery Channel/Travel Channel; taught journalism at Colorado College; published several books, including Last Trout in Venice, Up the Amazon Without a Paddle, and Rough Guide to Traveling Around the World; has contributed to Esquire, Men's Journal, National Geographic Adventure; and he served as the regular world-travel expert on Public Radio's flagship travel program, Savvy Traveler.  Lansky's most recent book, Signspotting, is a Lonely Planet best seller.

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An alumni panel will discuss “Issues in Environmental Careers” today, Monday, April 13 at 4 p.m.  Eric Udelhofen '07, project developer for Horizon Wind Energy; Ellen Sukovich '01, atmospheric research scientist with NOAA; and Miles Mercer '98, community developer in the Twin Cities, discuss the environmental issues at stake in their work.  The ENTS program has arranged this panel.

A “Clean Car Forum” is scheduled for today, Monday, April 13 from 8 to 9:30 p.m. This event is sponsored by MPIRG.

The Carleton International Relations Council (IRC) will hold a coffee hour discussion on the topic “The Downsides of Democracy” on Tuesday, April 14 at 8 p.m.

“Beauty and Love: Video Screening and Discussion” is scheduled for Wednesday, April 15 at 4:30 p.m. This will be a video screening of a modern dance interpretation of Beauty and Love, a Sufi mystical poem in the Mevlevi (Rumi) tradition. Following the half-hour video, Professor Walter Andrews, a distinguished Ottoman scholar from the University of Washington, will lead a discussion with the audience. Professor Andrews' most recent book is The Age of Beloveds: Love and the Beloved in Early Modern Ottoman and European Culture and Society, with Mehmet Kalpaklı, Duke University Press, 2005. The event is sponsored by the Humanities Center, Religion, and Theater and Dance.

“Facebook Friends: Social Networking in Academia” will be presented Thursday, April 16 at noon.
Presenters include: Amy Csizmar Dalal, Assistant Professor of Computer Science; Jeff Ondich, Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science; and Arendu Pattanayak, Associate Professor of Physics. This event is co-sponsored by EthIC (Ethical Inquiry at Carleton) and the Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching.  Lunches will be provided for 50.

“On the Divide: How a Musician and Classicist Came to Write About Willa Cather,” is scheduled for Friday, April 17 at 4 p.m.  David Porter will speak about how it happens that a classicist and musician is writing about Willa Cather (and Virginia Woolf!) at all. He will tell a bit about the path that led from his initial interest in Cather in the early '80s to beginning to write about her in 2000. David will then talk in a bit more depth about what he tried to do in his recent book about Cather, On the Divide. After his presentation he will open the floor to questions and conversation.  A book signing and reception will follow.

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Tuesday, April 14
"Our Frosh: Who Are They and Why Does it Matter?"

An interactive session exploring the initial result of the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education.

Charles Blaich, Director, Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College; and Liz Ciner, Associate Dean of the College

4:30 to 6 p.m., Leighton 304, refreshments provided

Thursday, April 16
"Facebook Friends: Social Networking in Academia"

Amy Csizmar Dalal, Assistant Professor of Computer Science; Jeff Ondich, Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science; Arendu Pattanayak, Associate Professor of Physics

What are the benefits and drawbacks to faculty, students, and their interactions from using the new social networking technology?

Co-sponsored by EthIC (Ethical Inquiry at Carleton)

Noon to 1:30 p.m., Gould Library Athenaeum, lunch provided for 50

Click here for a detailed list of upcoming Spring Term LTC events; or, if there was an event you missed last term, click here to view videos of Winter Term events.

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Mel Griffin is a first year graduate student at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Before seeking her MFA, Mel created her own fine arts education through apprenticeships, internships, and residencies located all across the country. With a background in painting and drawing, Mel makes functional pottery with an emphasis on line quality in both form and surface.

Kip O’Krongly is a functional ceramic artist currently working at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis.  She uses earthenware clay with a wide variety of surface treatment techniques to explore her interest in the intersection of food production, energy use, and transportation.  Prior to her studies at the Northern Clay Center, Kip pursued her clay work through apprenticing at a production pottery in Montana, managing the ceramic program at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, teaching classes, and taking numerous ceramic workshops across the country. 

Kristin Pavelka grew up in the suburbs of the Twin Cities and discovered clay as a biology major at Carleton.  After earning a Master of Fine Art from Penn State University, she received the Jerome Foundation Project Grant and a residency at the Archie Bray Foundation during the summer of 2005, and spent a month as a resident artist in Goshogawara, Japan in 2007.  Architecture, textiles, food, historical pots, mid-20th century design, and the surroundings from her daily life all influence the formal and design decisions in her work. Currently, Kristin teaches ceramics at Hamline University in St. Paul.

Their visit will be Wednesday, April 15 with demonstrations from 12:30 to 3 p.m. in the Ceramics Studio in Boliou 46. Pizza will be provided by the Career Center at 12:30 p.m. A panel discussion will be from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in Boliou 104 with light snacks provided by the Career Center at 3:20 p.m. in the Boliou Gallery.