Quotes from a Leading Liberal Arts College in Northfield

My first year as a blogger, I made a post titled, “Meet Carleton” where I compiled a list of quotes from students, staff, and professors I’d heard over the course of my freshman year. As a junior, I now have a three-year (!!) supply of professors being iconic and students being “studious.”

I remember being really scared that once I got to college, it’d be 100% serious and 100% academics all the time. I’m sure we’ve all had a high school teacher warn that “this behavior won’t fly in college!” or, “your professors won’t be laughing!” When in reality, college is much more forgiving. We’re all adults here, and respect goes both ways at Carleton. Hopefully, this post will assure you of this: we definitely know how to have fun here!

So, without further ado…

Some of my favorite quotes I heard at Carleton:

• “I’m slim shady, the real slim shady…” — Sung in Latin meter by Classics Department professor Chico Zimmerman in his Latin 204 course.

• Also Chico Zimmerman in Latin 204: attempting to teach us about prepositions by stepping onto and off of a student’s bag: “I’m ON the backpack. Now I’m BY the backpack! Now I’m ON the backpack…”

• “Are you guys tweeting or something? I tweet sometimes!” — Al Garber, Mathematics & Statistics Department

• Clara Hardy entering her Classics seminar: “So who DID do the assignment??” (No one.)

• *Me, having a serious conversation with my art professor, David Lefkowitz with paint all over both of our faces*.

• “I’m a Cancer, which makes sense.” — Admissions Officers discussing their signs after a meeting.

• “Look, it’s dirty Cannon River water!” — Geology professor Bereket Haileab, pouring student’s coffee out on the floor.

• “If I see all caps in a presentation, I HAVE TO YELL THEM.” — Jake Morton, Classics

• “This toaster is in a state of injustice, agree?” — Daniel Groll, Philosophy

• “WOO!” — Russ Petricka during his Step Aerobics class (PE)

• “You mean to tell me that TRIO doesn’t stand for anything??” — freshman during New Student Week (after struggling to keep up with Carleton’s onslaught of acronyms all week).

• “Okay, it’s probably time to start class now.” — Ross Elfline, Art History after discussing Netflix shows.

• “Latin does not care about you.” – Chico Zimmerman, Classics

• “Tell me if I’m bleeding, I cut myself shaving this morning.” — Stephen Mohring, Studio Art, while standing on a table.

• “You’re a whiz-bang cleaner!” — Julia Uleberg Swanson during my summer job at the Dacie Moses house.

• “What video games do y’all recommend?” — Jordan Rogers, Classics

• “The squirrels are by far the scariest part about college.” – concerned student

• “I can never remember how to spell ‘ccommittee.’” – Admissions Staff

Ren (they/them) grew up catching salamanders, recklessly climbing trees, and running around barefoot in the Appalachian Mountains in a small town in North Carolina. They are a junior double major in art history and studio art, and love spending time in the arb, Sayles Hill Campus Center, and the Weitz Center for Creativity. Ren is the co-president of Carleton’s QuestBridge chapter and works with other equity programs on campus.