GATHERING OUR MEMORIES: REFLECTIONS OF MULTICULTURAL STUDENT LIFE AT CARLETON, 1874-2000
The intensified activism of multicultural students in the 1970s continued, to some extent, into the 1980s. In 1981, the group Native Americans with a Future (now known as the American Native Peoples Organization, ANPO) was founded on campus. Students' political attentions became further divided among world concerns: the conflicts in Central America; the build-up of American nuclear arms; the ongoing apartheid system in South Africa, and issues closer to home, Carleton's continuing investment in South Africa; the college's proposal to end need-blind admissions; disputes over CIA recruitment on campus.
The following is an excerpt from "Twenty-five Years After The Rockefeller Grant", 1990
"The atmosphere at Carleton has definitely changed since the early years of the Rockefeller Grant. While some problems and misconceptions still exist, issues of race and ethnicity are more openly discussed and debated now than they were in the 1960s among all members of the community from the residence hall to the dining hall to the classroom. These exchanges, however, are no longer solely initiated by the campus' minority population; members of the majority community have seriously discussed among themselves issues of race and prejudice and their personal role in it in a group called "Whites Raising Our Awareness About Racism."
"Without a doubt, the College community is outwardly comfortable with debate and discussion of race, ethnicity, and prejudice, more so than at any other institution in the country. Nevertheless, Carleton mirrors the larger American culture, as there is still some inner struggle with those questions."
