September 29, 2025
News
AI Survey Results from Faculty Retreat
Dear Colleagues,
As promised, we are sharing the results of the brief survey that I asked you to participate in during my remarks at the faculty retreat. We had 170 responses (thank you!) which are displayed in percentages below. On the whole, Janet Scannell, George Cusack, and I think the results this year largely show positive trends in our willingness to engage with AI tools and to share with our students how we want them to (or not to) use AI tools in our classes. Students are eager for your guidance, so thank you to all of you who have encorporated usage guidelines in your syllabi! We continue to believe that a robust institutional response to AI involves many different, informed perspectives on the myriad AI-powered tools available to us. Thank you for your thoughtful engagement! There are some up-coming events (see below) that I think you will find interesting and helpful. Please keep an eye out for them. Gratefully, Michelle
Chrome’s Homework Help
Our colleagues in Academic Technology have discovered a new feature in Chrome called “Homework Help”. This feature is powered by Google Lens and can help users of Learning Management Systems like Moodle to get assistance, in some cases, answers to any homework prompts and occasionally quizzes posted online. In an effort to make you aware of this new tool and the implications for your teaching, Don Vosburg has created a four-minute video that will make you aware of the features and the possibility of disabling it, which is – full disclosure – only limited. Our gratitude to Don and all of Academic Technology for trying to keep us updated on new AI tools that could impact our work and how we choose to do it.
Fall Term Library Updates
Library Staff
Brad Schaffner (College Librarian) retired at the end of June. The search for his replacement is actively ongoing. In the meantime, Christina Sinkler-Miller (also Head of the RADS Department) is our Interim College Librarian. Feel free to be in touch with her if you have any questions about the library.
Claudia Peterson (Head of Reference & Instruction), also left Carleton in July. Sarah Calhoun, the R&I librarian for Humanities and Digital Scholarship has stepped in as the new Interim Head of Reference & Instruction.
We welcomed two new R&I librarians over the summer: Hannah Chapman Tripp (STEM and Data) and Ariel Kay (Arts and Copyright).
Research Support
Do you want to offer your students additional research support? Do you have a research skill in mind you’d like them to learn? Would you like your students to meet their librarian or take a tour of the stacks? If you answered yes to any of these questions, we encourage you to get in touch with your liaison librarian to discuss the variety of services we offer to help support you and your students. This is support that you can take advantage of at any point during the term, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch to discuss your ideas or your students’ research needs. Not sure who your librarian is? Send an email to reference@carleton.edu, and we will get back to you!
A&I Support
If you are teaching an A&I this fall, we invite you to bring your students to the library classroom (Libe 306) so they can get to know their library and liaison librarians. Visiting the library and meeting the Reference & Instruction Librarians during your A&I can be very valuable for students, as this may be the first time students are introduced to library services and resources. Even if your students are not completing a research assignment, there is plenty of information that our first years need to know in order to succeed at Carleton.
Streaming Media Requests
Streaming media requests are handled by the RADS department of the library (Resource Acquisition and Discovery Services). Please direct any film requests to Susan Shirk (Acquisitions, E-Resources and Outreach Librarian) or libraryacquisitions@carleton.edu. This includes requests for new acquisitions, as well as for assistance identifying a potential streaming option for your course.
Progress Reports
Faculty members should submit progress reports to the Dean of Students Office for students who are not meeting class expectations. This could include any of the following: missed classes, missed assignments, lack of communication, disengaged in class, or wellness concerns.
The purpose of having the Dean of Students Office receive progress reports is three-fold: to confirm for students that they are in academic difficulty, to inform those in a position to assist and support students (Class Dean) of the nature of the concern, and to reveal patterns of behavior about students as they may not be meeting expectations in multiple classes.
To initiate this process, please use the progress report form. Your academic progress reports have proven helpful in assisting students with their academic success.
Advising
Sophomorphosis Events
Sophomorphosis is back this year and off to a great start! We’ll kick things off with a Sophomore Reception on Tuesday, September 30 from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. in Great Hall. Please encourage your advisees to attend.
Upcoming events include:
- Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about OCS (but were afraid to ask) – October 9 at 5:00 p.m. in Leighton 304
- Majors and Minors Fair – October 9 from 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. in Great Hall
- Sophomore Pre-Health Information Session – October 14 at noon
- Summer Opportunities Information Session – October 21 at 4:30 p.m., featuring representatives from the Career Center, CCCE, Chaplain’s Office, and the Office of Student Fellowships
We appreciate your support in spreading the word to your advisees and helping make Sophomorphosis a success.
Review Your Rosters
Please be sure to do one last double-check to make sure your class rosters are accurate and reflect what you expect. Now is the time to have students reach out to the Registrar’s Office with any questions or concerns about registration errors. Students who have been manually added to Moodle course sites might not be officially registered in Workday.
You can view your current class rosters in Workday by navigating to your Profile, clicking on the My Teaching App, selecting Carleton Class Roster and filtering to your assigned sections in the current term. A step-by-step guide can be found here.
Academic Progress & Adjustments for Seniors
The Registrar’s Office recently emailed seniors regarding remaining degree requirements, diploma names, and graduation dates, with academic advisers copied on the message.
For any necessary adjustments, such as a course substitution or waiver, please process these approvals as soon as possible through Workday, or you may send your request to degreecompletion@carleton.edu.
You can find detailed instructions in the help article, Academic Requirement Override Descriptions and Details (for Major/Minor Coordinators). This will help ensure the accuracy of the students’ academic progress reports.
Kolenkow-Reitz Fellowships: Deadline Monday, October 6, 5:00 p.m.
Funding through the Kolenkow-Reitz endowment is available to support Carleton students performing up to three weeks of full-time research under the supervision of non-Carleton science/math faculty at other institutions. All Carleton students are eligible to apply and must coordinate in advance with a lead researcher at another institution.
Advising Quick Links
- Advising Handbook
- Forms and Decision Trees
- Advising Contacts
- Graduation & Major Requirements
- Academic Rules and Regulations
- Off-Campus Study Programs
- Career Center Resources for Faculty & Advisers
- Office of Student Fellowships ‘For Advisors’ Page
Grants and Fellowships
MN Humanities Center Grants for Museums, Exhibits, and Collections or Festivals
The Minnesota Humanities Center is now accepting proposals for two of its programs funded by state Legacy grants.
Museums, Exhibits, and Collections grants enable recipients to create, celebrate, and teach the art, culture, and heritage of the many diverse cultural groups that make up Minnesota, including but not limited to Indigenous organizations, communities whose culture and heritage have been historically underrepresented, recent immigrant communities, and veterans. Applicants can request funding for the term of November 1, 2025 – May 31, 2026 and/or July 1, 2026 – May 31, 2027. The deadline to apply is Monday, October 27.
Festival grants support projects that will work to create, celebrate, and teach the art, culture, and heritage of the many diverse cultural groups that make up Minnesota, including but not limited to Indigenous organizations, communities whose culture and heritage have been historically underrepresented, recent immigrant communities, and veterans. Grant funds awarded may support arts and cultural programming, staffing, community outreach, transportation, facilities and equipment rentals, signage, and public safety expense reimbursements. Applicants can request funding for the term of January 1 – October 31, 2026 and/or November 1, 2026 – October 31, 2027. The deadline to apply is Monday, November 17.
To learn more about these opportunities, contact the Grants Office.
Workshops
Whose Future?: AI and Sustainability Roundtable Event
Technology companies are trying to sell us on a future where generative AI tools manage everything, from our work lives to our social interactions. But the hype around AI overlooks the many social and ethical issues that this technology raises. If we want to decide what future we want to live in, we need to explore the issues that fall outside the AI hype, so we can each make informed decisions about how AI should fit into our lives.
The AI Coordinating Committee and the AI Community of Practice are holding their first event of the year on Tuesday, October 7 from 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. in Weitz 236. In this event, we’re going to explore the problem of AI and Sustainability. Professors Devavani Chatterjea, Jason Decker, and Nathan Grawe will discuss the ways their discipline helps them to understand the sustainability issues that AI raises. Then, we’ll turn the night over to small group discussions where faculty, staff, and students can share their points of view.
Carleton students, faculty, and staff are all welcome! Refreshments will be served.