Northfield, Minn.-Robert A. Oden, Jr., president of Carleton College, was featured in a story published in the July 6 edition of the New York Times.
The story titled "An Old Gothic Campus Is Purging Its Architecture of '60s Functionalism" is about the importance placed on architecture at Kenyon College. Oden served as president of the college in Gambier, Ohio, before beginning his tenure at Carleton on July 1.
The story says: "Kenyon is one of those small liberal arts schools that have won reputations far out of proportion to their size. Its curriculum draws applicants from around the country and beyond, and outside the classroom it boasts successes ranging from perennial champion swim teams to a highly regarded literary magazine, the Kenyon Review. But from the time its first permanent building was completed in 1829, Kenyon has taken almost as much pride in the look of its campus as in the quality of its education. The campus is mainly a collection of Gothic buildings, modeled after European churches and colleges. So now there is a campaign to cleanse it of architectural ugliness by tearing down buildings that people [there] call 'sixties boxes' or 'unfortunate sixties mistakes.'"
A copy of the story may be purchased at the New York Times Web site: www.nytimes.com. To locate the story, search the New York Times Web site by using the key word "Oden."
