Historically Speaking
Carleton College was founded by the Minnesota Conference of Congregational Churches under the name of Northfield College on November 14, 1866. Preparatory school classes began in September 1867, but it was not until 1870, when the Reverend James W. Strong took office as the first president, that the first college class was formed and construction on the first on-campus building was begun. It was agreed at the outset that after one year formal church control should end, but throughout its formative years the College received significant support and direction from the Congregational churches. Although it is now autonomous and non-sectarian, the College respects these historical ties and gives continuing recognition to them through membership in the Council for Higher Education of the United Church of Christ.
By the fall of 1871, the name of the College had been changed to honor an early benefactor, William Carleton of Charlestown, Massachusetts, who earlier that year had bestowed a gift of $50,000 on the struggling young college. At the time, it was the largest single contribution ever made to a western college, and it was made unconditionally, with no design that the name of the College should be changed.
Carleton has always been a coeducational institution. The original graduating class in 1874 was composed of one man and one woman who followed similar academic programs. Carleton’s current enrollment is 2007 (Fall 2022).
Mission, Vision, Values and Goals
The mission of Carleton College is to provide an exceptional undergraduate liberal arts education. In pursuit of this mission, the College is devoted to academic excellence, distinguished by the creative interplay of teaching, learning, and scholarship, and dedicated to our diverse residential community and extensive international engagements.
The College’s aspiration is to prepare students to lead lives of learning that are broadly rewarding, professionally satisfying, and of service to humanity. By discovering and sharing exemplary models of undergraduate education, the College seeks to be a leader among those colleges, universities, and professional organizations that share our dedication to this vision.
Carleton strives to be a collaborative community that encourages curiosity and intellectual adventure of the highest quality. Faculty, staff, and students respect one another for the serious work and the playful humor we share, and we support each other in pursuing a healthy balance of mind, body, and spirit. Quiet reflection and lively engagement are valued as sources of self-understanding and renewal. Carleton honors thoughtful conversations about difficult questions as necessary for individual growth and community strength. The College works to embody the values of freedom of inquiry and expression, and is vigilant in protecting these values within a culture of academic integrity, civil deliberation, and ethical action. Carleton aims to be welcoming and hospitable to its neighbors, guests, and the public, and a responsible steward of its resources.
Carleton’s academic goals focus on developing the critical and creative talents of our students through broad and rigorous studies in the liberal arts disciplines. Mentored by dedicated faculty and staff, students become active members of a learning and living community that promotes the exploration of passionate interests and emerging avocations. Students learn higher order thinking skills: disciplinary inquiry, analysis of evidence, arts of communication and argumentation, and problem-solving strategies. In their chosen fields of study, students strengthen their capabilities for disciplinary and interdisciplinary research and artistic production. Students acquire the knowledge necessary for the continuing study of the world’s peoples, arts, environments, literatures, sciences, and institutions.
Carleton develops qualities of mind and character that prepare its graduates to become citizens and leaders, capable of finding inventive solutions to local, national, and global challenges.
Accreditation and Affiliations
Accredited by several associations, including the Higher Learning Commission (since 1913), Carleton offers the Bachelor of Arts degree. Among the academic honor societies with chapters on the campus are Phi Beta Kappa and Mortar Board, scholastic honor societies and Sigma Xi, science honor society.
Carleton is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM).
Carleton College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, 230 South LaSalle Street, Suite 7-500, Chicago, Illinois 60604-1411. Phone 800-621-7440.
Carleton College is registered with the Minnesota Office of Higher Education pursuant to Minnesota Statutes sections 136A.61 to 136A.71. Registration is not an endorsement of the institution. Credits earned at the institution may not transfer to all other institutions.
College Governance
The Carleton Board of Trustees is responsible for the general educational and financial policies and operations of the College. Many of the policies and procedures that guide the day-to-day operation of the College originate in and are implemented by the shared governance system of college committees and the President’s senior leadership team. Carleton’s shared governance is historically separated into two categories: educational policy, as determined by the faculty, and non-educational policy, as carried forward by the College Council.
The faculty receive policy recommendations from the Education and Curriculum Committee (ECC). The ECC, co-led by a faculty member and the Dean of the College, is comprised of faculty and students, who will function as a hearing and policy formulation committee. They are responsible for the articulation of educational policy and will receive occasional reports from other committees (such as the Academic Standing Committee) that are primarily concerned with educational or curricular matters.
The College Council oversees non-educational policy which may be forwarded on to the Board of Trustees for approval. The Council, chaired by the President, is made up of faculty, staff and students, including the faculty president and the president of the Carleton Student Association. The Board of Trustees and the Alumni Council each designate a non-voting representative to attend meetings. The Council may create subcommittees, consisting of members of the Council and other campus constituents, to consult and produce policy recommendations when needed. There are currently three subcommittees of the College Council: the Budget Committee, the Campus Design Advisory Committee, and the Community, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (CEDI) Leadership Board.
The Advisory Committee on Student Life is constituted as an advisory committee to the Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students to address challenges and opportunities specifically concerning student life, and to help develop policies and practices for review by College Council or the Board of Trustees.
Carleton Student Association
Every student is a member of the Carleton Student Association (CSA). Three officers and 22 senators are elected annually to serve as the Senate, CSA’s legislative body. The Senate’s duties include: the election of student members; creation of ad-hoc subcommittees; the management of the CSA activities fees, chartering new student organizations, and the appointment of student representatives to various campus committees. CSA also works with the Dean of Students Office to address issues of concern to students.
The College: A Statistical Look
Carleton College is a co-educational, residential liberal arts college with a distinguished faculty and a diverse student body of about 2,000.
In fall of 2022, 35% of Carleton’s 2,007 students came from the Midwest, 23% from the West, 19% from the East, 12% from the South, and 10% from outside the United States. Approximately 35% identify as African American, Asian, Native Hawaiian, other Pacific Islander, Hispanic, Native American, Alaskan Native, or of two or more races. 57% of Carleton students receive institutional need-based aid.
Carleton had 241 full-time faculty in fall 2022, and 100% of all tenured and tenure-track faculty have a doctorate or a terminal degree in their field. The overall student/faculty ratio is 8:1. The average class size is 17. In the fall of 2022, over 70% percent of class sections had under 20 students, and no class had over 50 students. Each year, students can choose from approximately 1,000 courses in 33 majors, 38 minors, and several interdisciplinary programs. Typically, 70% of students participate in off-campus study programs at some point during their college career; due to the pandemic, only 34% of the Class of 2022 participated in an off-campus study.
In the fall of 2022, 95% of the cohort of 2021 first-year students returned to Carleton. In accordance with the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, the six-year graduation rate for the cohort that entered in fall of 2016 was 91%, and 88% of that cohort graduated in four years or fewer.
Since 2010, 15% of graduates enrolled in graduate or professional study within one year of graduation. Of the graduates from 2006 and 2013, 75% had done so within ten years. The six most common fields of graduate study for Carleton graduates since 2010 have been: Medicine, Law, Computer Science, Education, Chemistry, and Physics.
Carleton ranks first among baccalaureate-level arts and sciences colleges in graduates who have earned doctoral degrees in academic fields between 2007 and 2021 (the most recent year for which data are available). In the most recent five-period between 2017 and 2021, according to the National Science Foundation Survey of Earned Doctorates, Carleton graduates earned 422 academic doctorates, including 108 in the life sciences (#2), 94 in physical and earth sciences (#1), 35 in mathematics and computer science (#3), and 66 in humanities and arts (#7).
From 2000 to 2022, Carleton graduates have won 142 National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowships, 153 Fulbright US Student Program Awards, 27 Watson Fellowships, 19 Goldwater Scholarships, and 1 Rhodes Scholarship. Ten years after graduation, the most common job areas in the work history of Carleton alums are Student, Software Developer, Health Care, Teaching Pre-K through High School, Scientist, Research and Development, Computer Engineer, and Business Analyst or Associate.
Questions related to this report should be directed to Carleton’s Office of Institutional Research and Assessment at ira@carleton.edu.
The Campus
What now constitutes 1040 acres of campus, arboretum, and athletic fields started with two ten-acre tracts deeded to the infant college in 1867 by Charles M. Goodsell, a miller, and Charles A. Wheaton, Northfield editor.
Even before a class was held, the trustees authorized the executive committee “to enclose the grounds and improve the same by cultivation and planting trees.” This concern for the students’ environment is still an important aspect of the Carleton experience. As of today, Willis Hall has been joined by 48 others on campus, including 13 academic facilities, 11 on-campus residence halls, nine student apartment houses, four recreation and athletic facilities, a library, a chapel, an observatory and a campus center. The College also offers 28 college-owned student houses, including 14 cultural or language shared interest houses.
Architectural Heritage
The history of Willis Hall, the oldest building on campus, is typical of many of Carleton’s older facilities. While remaining true to their architectural heritage, they have served a variety of needs over the years, evolving—with the aid of judicious renovations—to meet the needs of an ever-changing institution.
Willis, for example, started out as an all-purpose building: it contained a men’s dormitory, classrooms, offices, and a small chapel. Later, a bookstore and a post office were added. Still later, the building was transformed into a student union. In 1976, it was remodeled again, reverting to an academic building.
The following chronological listing of Carleton’s buildings indicates their present function. For information on the history of each, consult Carleton: The First Century by Leal Headley and Merrill Jarchow.
Willis Hall, 1872
Economics and educational studies offices, classrooms, and seminar room
Goodsell Observatory, 1887
Archaeology laboratory, astronomy, 16-inch visual refractor telescope, 8-inch photographic refractor telescope, astronomy laboratory, Sustainability and other faculty offices
Scoville Hall, 1896
Admissions and Student Financial Services offices. Renovated in 2017.
Laird Hall, 1906
English offices, classrooms, President and Provost Offices, Registrar's Office, and administrative offices. Renovated in 2021.
Sayles-Hill Campus Center, 1910
Student social, organizational, and activity spaces; student post office; café; bookstore; administrative offices; classrooms. Renovated in 1979, addition completed in 1988, Café renovated in 2023.
The Music Hall, 1914, now Hasenstab Hall
Political science offices, classrooms, and flexible space for classes, research, and collaboration. Music Hall built in 1914, renovated in 2022.
Skinner Memorial Chapel, 1916
Chapel and offices
Burton Hall, 1916
Residence hall and dining hall
Nourse Hall, 1917
Residence hall, and Nourse Theater
Leighton Hall, 1921
Religion, history, philosophy, sociology and anthropology offices, classrooms, administrative offices
Davis Hall, 1923
Residence hall and Wellness Center
Evans Hall, 1927
Residence hall, renovated in 2013
Severance Hall, 1927
Residence hall, Dean of Students Office, Residential Life Office
Laird Stadium, 1927
Locker rooms; weight training area; football game field; eight-lane, 400-meter, all-weather track
Boliou Memorial Art Hall, 1949
Gallery, studios, classrooms, and art and art history department offices, expansion and remodeling completed in 1995.
Laurence McKinley Gould Library, 1956
491,378 volumes, 260,708 government documents, 199 print journals currently received, access to over 279,000 electronic journals, over 1,889,899 electronic books, 518 electronic databases, 450 study spaces, 52 public access computers, computer lab, 18 group study rooms, classrooms, and staff offices. The Writing Center and Academic Support is located in the library as well as the Quantitative Resource Center.
Musser Hall, 1958
Residence hall
Myers Hall, 1958
Residence hall
Olin Hall of Science, 1961
Cognitive science, computer science, physics, psychology offices, classrooms, auditorium, and laboratories, renovations completed in 1997, and in 2020.
Goodhue Hall, 1962
Residence hall
The West Gymnasium, 1964
Basketball courts, swimming pool, locker rooms and offices of Physical Education, Athletics and Recreation department
Cowling Gymnasium, 1965
Gymnasium, pool, dance studio and offices
Watson Hall, 1967
Residence hall
Johnson House and Alumni Guest House, 1992
Linked structures, Johnson House contains offices and support space for Career Center, and the Alumni Guest House has guest quarters, a library/lounge, and meeting room.
Center for Mathematics and Computing, 1993
Mathematics and statistics department offices, the Math Skills Center and library, Information Technology Services, including three computing laboratories, training room, administrative offices and classrooms.
Hulings Hall, 1995
Biology department offices and portions of the psychology department, teaching and research laboratories, and greenhouse. Renovated 2020.
Recreation Center, 2000
Climbing wall, aerobic/dance studio, fitness center, racquetball courts, and field house with 200 meter indoor track, surrounding four infield courts for volleyball, tennis and basketball.
Language and Dining Center, 2001
Asian languages, classical languages, German, Russian, French, Spanish and Middle Eastern Languages, The Language Center, classrooms, seminar rooms, 400-seat dining hall.
Student apartment houses, 2001
Nine two- and three-story houses (Brooks, Collier, Colwell, Dixon, Eugster, Hunt, Nason, Owens, and Scott) offer 23 apartments accommodating 100 students.
Cassat and James Hall, 2009
Two four-story residence halls located on the southeast side of campus and linked by an underground tunnel. They house 230 students from all class years, with more than half living in traditional singles and doubles in Cassat Hall and nearly 100 living in suites in James Hall. Both halls have been designed with an eye toward sustainability and include numerous shared spaces to encourage community life and innovative features.
Weitz Center for Creativity, 2011
Facility geared toward creative collaboration supporting multiple student and classroom projects and allowing faculty members to teach with words, images, sounds, and narrative in a variety of media. In addition to housing the departments of Cinema and Media Studies (CAMS), Theater, and Dance, the space includes a teaching museum, a dramatic theater, a cinema theater, dance studios, classrooms, the Learning and Teaching Center and a coffee shop. The building is home to the Presentation, Events and Production Support (PEPS) office and the IdeaLab, a shared, interdisciplinary laboratory for exploring and learning to use technology. Music addition, in 2017, added a 400-seat performance hall, two rehearsal rooms, 13 practice rooms, and music faculty offices.
Anderson Hall, 2019
The integrated science complex is home to the Chemistry, Geology, and Physics departments. Features include state-of-the-art labs, classrooms, and the Class of 1969 Makerspace, a collaborative space stocked with tools to design, prototype, and build. The Daugherty Atrium, a three-story glass foyer, functions as a "living room" for the science departments, including Olin and Hulings Halls. The East Energy Station is housed under the basement.
Sustainability
Carleton College recognizes that it exists as part of interconnected communities that are affected by personal and institutional choices. We are dedicated, therefore, to investigating and promoting awareness of the current and future impact of our actions in order to foster responsibility for these human and natural communities. Carleton strives to be a model of environmental stewardship by incorporating ideals of sustainability into the operations of the College and the daily life of individuals.
Carleton has a Climate Action Plan with the goal of becoming a carbon neutral campus by 2050. To support the Climate Action Plan, sustainability and climate change topics have been integrated into the curriculum along with many student work-study positions that are engaged in projects to advance on-campus sustainability initiatives in the areas of waste, land management, energy supply and demand, procurement, and transportation.
Carleton transitioned to a campus-wide geothermal heating and cooling system that will reduce operating costs and carbon-emissions enabling the campus to use more sources of renewable energy. The five-year geothermal project was completed in 2021.
In 2004 the college constructed a 1.65 megawatt wind turbine. It was the first college-owned, utility scale wind turbine in the United States and over the life of the turbine it is expected to produce about 100-120 million kilowatt hours of clean energy. A second 1.6 megawatt wind turbine began providing power directly to Carleton’s electrical grid in fall 2011.
The College has a comprehensive recycling and compost program along with various car-sharing and public transportation opportunities around Northfield and to the Twin Cities.
New Construction LEED Projects
In keeping with Carleton values, two new residence halls, Cassat and James Halls and Weitz Center for Creativity received LEED gold certification through the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. The Integrated Science Complex was built to platinum certification level.
Cassat Hall and James Hall, with exteriors of durable brick, stone, and clay tile, are of an environmentally sustainable design, and earned a LEED gold certification based on the U.S. Green Building Council’s standards in sustainable design, construction, and operation. Solar thermal roof panels (made in Minnesota) on Cassat Hall are designed to heat 50% of the domestic water by utilizing energy from the sun to pre-heat supply water. Photovoltaic (PV) solar roof panels on James Hall convert energy from the sun into electricity to power the buildings.
Carleton chose not to demolish the historic old middle school when planning for the Weitz Center for Creativity, rather, entire sections of the original 1910 and 1934 structures were either preserved or recycled. The following materials have been reclaimed for use in the new facility: mosaic tile floor, ornate ironwork on a main staircase, wood from the bleachers in the former gym which was reused as wall covering, wood seats from the 1930s-era auditorium which appear as a sculpture installation on the ceiling leading to the new cinema, much of the original woodwork and trim, and slate from the original blackboards. Many details helped the Weitz Center for Creativity achieve LEED gold certification.
Carleton's new integrated science complex includes renovation of Hulings and Olin Hall, and construction of Evelyn M. Anderson Hall in the courtyard connecting the buildings into one facility. The project achieved platinum level and has implemented many sustainable practices to optimize energy performance, water efficiency, enhanced mechanical/electrical systems, indoor air quality management, reduced light pollution, and recycling more than 75% construction waste.