Strides in Sustainability
I was delighted to receive the “Going Greener” issue (Winter 2025) and to learn that Prof. Chatterjea is the full-time director of the ENTS department. When we taught the first environmental studies courses nearly 50 years ago and founded ENTS as a concentration over 30 years ago, we never imagined the multifaceted sustainability program the college has now developed. Indeed, I believe Carleton has the best such program in the country. Congratulations to all!
— Norman Vig ’61
Lifestyle Changes Required
After graduating from Carleton as a geology major, I got a PhD at Stanford followed by a long career studying volcanoes for the U.S. Geological Survey. I was stationed at Kīlauea in Hawaii for three years, and each year we went to neighboring Mauna Loa to make ground deformation measurements that might indicate pre-eruption restlessness. On our way to the summit, we spent a night at a small building to acclimate our bodies to the volcano’s elevation. And what a surprise to see a scientist there making daily measurements of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as a way to monitor how CO2 was increasing with time. These measurements continue right up to today. Global climate change is being driven by the increase of carbon dioxide, and climate change is marching in step, with no easing up in sight in spite of current human attempts to slow or reverse the situation. So while it’s nice to see how Carleton is trying to help slow climate change (Winter 2025), I fear that until humans worldwide change their daily living habits, Carleton will not measurably slow that process.
— Wendell “Duff” Duffield ’63
Football’s Footprint
“Going Greener” (Winter 2025) expounded on how Carleton is going above and beyond to reduce carbon emissions. Yet as a former football letterman, I wonder, was there discussion about the carbon emissions the football team caused by going to play and hosting a team in successive years from southern California? Why did the college think it was appropriate given its climate policy to induce an unnecessary Carleton–Pomona round-trip carbon footprint? What message does it send? That we are for carbon emission reductions except when it isn’t convenient or fun? Maybe playing an opponent closer to home wouldn’t be as sexy or as publicity producing, but aren’t those the type of choices that need to be made and that Carleton is (rightly) advocating others to make? And couldn’t the considerable funds expended have been better spent on upgrades or systems to make Carleton carbon negative? I am for intercollegiate sports, and there are times when extensive travel is called for, but this extravagant and unnecessary series with Pomona smacks of hypocrisy in light of Carleton’s stated goals.
— Tim Schoonmaker ’82
Endeavoring to Do Better
In “Voices Heard,” (Fall 2024), I appreciate that the Voice mentioned the alumni group Endeavoring To Do Better and our inspiring founder, Xandria Birk ’88. But the mention is cursory to the point of being dismissive, eliding the group’s purpose: reckoning with Carleton’s historical handling of sexual misconduct, especially cases involving repeat offenders, the extent of the harm done to survivors and the wider student body for decades, and what we as a community should do now.
ETDB’s signature effort is its Timeline Project, which reports the advocacy of Carleton students over several decades for just the kind of policies and programs recently implemented, and described exultantly, in “Voices Heard.” In its glancing reference to the timeline, the article omits mention of the painful experiences and arduous work by generations of students—at significant personal cost and against appalling institutional apathy (or worse)—that the timeline meticulously details.
These omissions, exacerbated by the unintentionally ironic title and insensitive, ahistorical pullquote (“To change how colleges are responding to sexual assault, students need to be active participants in that process”—really?!) made me question: whose voices were heard? And it made me question, again, whether Carleton has the courage to learn from its mistakes.
— Andrea Spalla ’88