Presidential portrait of Steve Poskanzer unveiled in Anderson Hall
The portrait was unveiled on February 4 at the west end of the Anderson atrium.
On Wednesday, February 4, the official presidential portrait of Steven G. Poskanzer, president emeritus and professor of political science at Carleton, was unveiled at the west end of the Anderson Hall atrium.
Poskanzer served as the 11th president of Carleton from 2010 to 2021. He helped complete and successfully implemented a strategic plan with priorities that included enhanced career preparation for students, increased socioeconomic diversity of the student body, and collaboration with other liberal arts colleges across the country. He also raised over $491 million in a development campaign to achieve the goals of the strategic plan, far exceeding the $400 million target.
During Poskanzer’s presidency, applications to Carleton rose to record levels and the student body became much more diverse, both racially and geographically. The College emphasized and dramatically expanded need-based financial aid for low- and middle-income students, helped in part by Carleton’s endowment increasing in value from $460 million to over $1.1 billion. The College also held faculty hiring and tenure decisions to the highest standards under Poskanzer’s leadership, and built new state-of-the-art, interdisciplinary science research and teaching as well as music performance facilities.
A scholar of higher education law, Poskanzer’s research focuses on issues of academic freedom and how colleges and universities seek to achieve educational goals in a complex legal and policy environment.
Having returned to Carleton in a full-time faculty role in fall 2022 after retiring from the role of president, Poskanzer teaches courses on constitutional law, judges and courts, and legal issues in higher education. His most recent book, The University’s Voice: Principled Silence and Purposeful Speech (Johns Hopkins University Press 2025) analyzes whether and when it is appropriate for universities to take institutional stances on political, economic, moral, and social issues. During the portrait unveiling, Poskanzer also held a book signing for The University’s Voice.
Poskanzer received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 1980 and a law degree from Harvard University in 1983. After practicing law briefly in Washington, D.C., his entire career has been spent in higher education, including roles at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago, the State University of New York (SUNY) system, and SUNY–New Paltz.
Erica Helgerud ’20 is the news and social media manager for Carleton College. “Stevie P,” as she knows him, was her president at Carleton!