Carleton students in Paul Hager’s cinema and media studies class last winter shot, edited and produced short videos for local non-profit organizations, and the project has caught the eye of the Northfield News in its May 25 edition. Hager and the class worked with Adrienne Falcon, director of academic civic engagement at Carleton, to identify potential clients, and the students then shot, edited and produced pieces for such places like the TORCH program at the Northfield High School, Northfield Historical Society, the Cannon River Sportsmen Club, the Community Action Center Food Shelf and Thursday’s Table. Libbie Weimer ’10 of Williamstown, Mass., produced a video about Growing Up Healthy, a Rice County nonprofit aimed at improving the lives of area youth, and said civic engagement was a great component of the class. “There are certain challenges that come with doing something outside of Carleton,” Weimer said. “It adds a lot to an academic experience.” The videos are used on organizations’ websites and in fund-raising activities to help the non-profit tell its particular story. You can view all the videos on Hager’s YouTube channel.

Susan Singer, the Laurence McKinley Gould Professor of the Natural Sciences, is quoted in the May 12 edition of an Education Week story, “Momentum Building for Hands-On Science Learning.” The story examines how a national trend towards stressing the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math has resulted in a hard look at how students at the high-school level should be receiving a high-quality lab experience. “The goal is to get away from ‘cookbook’ labs and find ways to get these labs more deeply integrated in the curriculum, not done in May after the AP exams are finished, which sadly happens,” she says in the article. “I think the AP will drive a lot of the other curriculum, … because how do you get kids to the point where they can do this kind of lab learning?” Singer chaired a committee that produced a 2005 National Research Council report on laboratory-based education.

Carleton’s Washington Program was featured in the April 10 edition of the Star Tribune. The program, in its 12th year, is run by Steven Schier, the Dorothy H. and Edward C. Congdon Professor of Political Science. The article focuses on Bill Brinkman ’12, who is serving as an intern in the office of Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, along with Brooke Davis ’11 and Olivia Killeen ’10. The online edition has vidoes of all three students. “You can almost sense it wherever you go, that people are vying for different things,” Brinkman tells the paper. “It happens in Congress. People are vying for power. It happens all over the place.” Schier relates that the experience gives Carleton students an inside look at the power structure in the nation’s capital. “There are some who take to Washington and see it as a magnet for opportunities, and some who get a little jaded,” he says. 

Steven Schier, the Dorothy H. and Edward C. Congdon Professor of Political Science, commented on the possibility of a showdown between state attorneys general and governors over the newly-passed federal health-care bill in the March 23 edition of the Christian Science Monitor. “State attorneys general are constitutionally independent state officers and have autonomy in their decisions to take action on behalf of their states,” Schier says.  He says the same thing could happen elsewhere, such as in California, but that given Jerry Brown’s support for the healthcare legislation, “that seems unlikely.”

Students at Carleton College will present the results of a recent term-long study on the effects of abrupt climate change at a special multimedia “poster session” on Wednesday, November 18 from 1:50-3 p.m. in the Severance Great Hall. The student’s research, part of a student civic engagement project led by Carleton College professor of chemistry Trish Ferrett, led to the creation of eight multimedia websites focused on the impact of abrupt climate change on a variety of settings, located right here in Minnesota and around the globe. This event is free and open to the public and light refreshments will be served.

Steven Schier, the Dorothy H. and Edward C. Congdon Professor of Political Science, gave the Reuters.com his opinion on how President Barack Obama might fare in his chances to push through his proposed health-care legislative reform package since Congress is controlled by Obama’s Democratic party. “A big majority is a diverse majority, and Democrats do not have the ideological homogeneity to just march in lock step with the president,” Schier warns. “A big majority can be a blessing or a curse — and in this case it’s a curse for Obama. A lot of Democrats are getting nervous about this.”

This week’s “Photo Feature: Week in Pictures” contains images from the Jan. 30 convocation, the Dacie Moses 126th birthday celebration brunch, and the panel discussion on the recent Israeli-Gaza conflict.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration, held at Carleton’s Skinner Memorial Chapel on Monday, Jan. 19, is now available for viewing via streaming video. The event featured guest speaker Mary Easter, Rae Schupack Nathan Professor of Dance and the Performing Arts, emerita, as well as musical performances by the Northfield Youth Concert Choir and Jamaal Magee ’10 (Chicago). The event was co-sponsored by the Northfield Human Rights Commission, which presented its 2009 Human Rights Award to Cherif Keita, professor of French and Francophone studies, as part of the evening’s celebration.

Roy Grow, the Frank B. Kellogg Professor of International Relations, recently appeared on Minnesota Public Radio’s “Midday With Gary Eichten” program. The duo discussed and dissected the myriad of challenges facing the United States and its President-Elect, Barack Obama. You can listen to the archived show on the MPR website.

Steven Schier, the Dorothy H. and Edward C. Congdon Professor of Political Science, spoke with the Star Tribune about the time that Minnesota may go with only one U.S. Senator as the recount between Republican incumbant Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken drags into January. “I think it matters more in January ’09 more than it would in [another] year because the Democratic Congress is planning on getting more active.” he said. “There will be all sorts of major initiatives. It’s an unusually consequential [moment] for Minnesota.” The entire article is available on the Star Tribune website.