Goodsell Observatory, and its monthly star-gazing open house, were featured on the front page of the Northfield News (July 12, 2006). News reporter Adam Johnson highlighted the continuing popularity of the observatory’s open house.

Karina Hill ’06 was featured in the Star Tribune on July 3, 2006, for convincing her hometown to take on global warming. After almost a year of working with the Plymouth City Council, Hill has persuaded them to lend their support to the fight against global warming. She started lobbying the city last summer while also making a documentary film about her efforts. The council recently approved a resolution affirming that human activities are behind global warming and promising that the city will attempt to conserve energy and reduce its production of greenhouse gases.

Carleton student Cailey Gibson ’07 (Shrewsbury, Vt.) was featured in an article in the June 28, 2006, issue of the Anacortes (Wash.) American. Gibson is spending the summer working for the city as a program assistant with the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign. She is monitoring and recording greenhouse gasses and other air pollutants in the city, using computer software to determine which factors Anacortes can act on and which are county or state issues. Practicing what she preaches, Gibson is commuting via bicycle and bus, the newspaper reported. The Carleton senior is a political science major with an ENTS concentration.

River City Book’s new blog, RCblog, was mentioned favorably in Shelf Awareness, a national book trade e-newsletter publication, which called the blog the “cool idea of the day.” The blog seeks to convey the store’s essence, says River City sales associate Tom Swift, which is that “we’re professional and passionate about books. We’re here to serve the community. We also don’t take ourselves too seriously.” River City Book opened in 2002 and is located at 306 Division Street in downtown Northfield. It is a branch of the Carleton Bookstore, and is provided as a service and benefit to the Northfield community by Carleton College.

Footage of Carleton’s wind turbine and information about it appeared in a July 21, 2006, CNN broadcast sequence about wind power called “Knots for Watts.” Alissa Pajer ’08 was the student videographer from the PEPS office who shot the footage of Carleton’s wind turbine.

President Oden’s spring trip to China was covered in a lengthy article in the South China Morning Post (May 6, 2006). The article described the liberal arts college experience in the United States, and how some Chinese schools are imitating this model. It mentioned that Oden was in China to build new ties with local universities, and quoted him as saying how important international study and travel is to Carleton and its students.

The rain forest census work of Stephen P. Hubbell ’63 is featured in a New York Times article (June 6, 2006). Hubbell, an ecologist at the University of Georgia, will be receiving an honorary degree from Carleton at this year’s commencement ceremonies. His research (along with partner Robin Foster of the Field Museum of Natural History) in an open-air laboratory in a Panama Canal island biological reserve has allowed him to measure geographical ranges and population fluctuations in tropical forests.

Carleton’s efforts at sustainability were featured in a June 4, 2006, Associated Press article. The article led with mention of Carleton’s wind turbine as well as Carleton senior Daniel Pulver’s (Harpswell, Maine) attempts to turn used cooking oil into auto fuel. The piece, which ran in the Boston Globe and many other newspapers, used Carleton as an example of the increasing efforts by colleges nationwide to become more sustainable while also saving money.

Stephen R. Lewis Jr., President Emeritus of Carleton College, published an essay called “Cheers for ‘Jack Sawyer’s U’ ” in the May 12, 2006, issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education. The essay remembers the late John E. Sawyer, former president of Williams College and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, who mentored a great number of people who went on to distinguished careers in higher education administration.

Matt Bartel ’06 and his MNSpeak.com blog were featured in the [Minneapolis] Star Tribune‘s May 8, 2006, issue. Bartel, the son of publishers Tom Bartel ’73 and Kristin Henning ’75, has been owner of MNSpeak.com for just over a year. Bartel and Henning publish the Twin Cities magazine The Rake, and are former publishers of Twin Cities publications City Pages and Minnesota Parent.