I love the day new students arrive. We all know they’re scared and kind of shell shocked, so the people who organize these first few days go out of their way to make everything incredibly upbeat, and it’s infectious! Now I’m utterly exhausted, but it’s been a good day.

Here’s how it went…

Welcome!

These students dance and cheer at the entrance to campus all day, and particularly when anyone walks or drives past them. I’ve decided that I love being cheered as I step onto campus. (And they said they loved me! *sniff*)

Popcorn!

The Northfield senior center owns this popcorn stand, which usually sits in downtown Northfield. Today they moved it to sit right in front of the student center and handed out free popcorn all day.

The East Wing

I led a tour of the library for students and their families. Here’s one of the brand new spaces that I think I’m going to really love. Comfy couches. Tables and chairs. Big screens to plug your laptop into. It’ll be grand.

There are several other places in the library that got updated with similar trappings this summer. I can’t wait to see how they get used.

Welcome Tent

Then I took my turn staffing the Welcome Tent. Students check in, get their room keys, get ethernet cables (from the IT people at the table next to us) hear about the library (we hand out trading cards that match their Fall term classes), and generally get all of their arriving-at-campus information in one place.

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After all that, I hid in my office and frantically made research guides. I figure you don’t need a picture of that. :-)

Click to enlarge

The campus was all a-buzz today. We arrived this morning to be greeted by a surveying crew, bulldozers, and “new building” informational signs on the Bald Spot. An email from the college president pointed us all to the following video, which outlines the needs and plans for this new LEED Platinum certified administrative building.

As if that wasn’t enough, today Toff the Campus Cat celebrated his birthday. This cat has crashed parties, wandered into the president’s office, hung out in the library, slept over night in student houses. And today there were birthday cupcakes in the student cafe…

… and students lined up to sign a birthday card for him in the library

So yes, it was a very busy day on campus today. Happy April!

Carleton's Schiller (taken in December 2004)

For those of you who haven’t heard me talk about our Schiller before, the general idea is that at any given point, some secret group of students has him and every other student wants him. You can read about his more famous exploits on the CarlWiki.

Anyway, he use to make appearances at many of the mass gatherings on campus (always accompanied by the obligatory rush to try to capture him from those who have him), and one of the first stories I remember hearing about Carleton (long before I came here to work) was of the elaborate cloak-and-dagger methods used to change out an old, beaten up bust for a new one.

Clinton and Schiller, 2000

That’s my favorite Schiller tale, followed by the story of Bill Clinton holding Schiller up during his commencement address here in 2000. My brother, who was a student here at the time, reports that the whole student body remembered (just in time) that rushing Schiller probably wouldn’t be nearly as much fun with all those snipers everywhere. That Schiller, signed by Clinton, is now held in a safe retirement location on campus.

Schiller Reads

When the librarians here did a bunch of READ posters in 2006, we made one for Schiller, too. His book of choice was Kidnapped, of course.

Well, apparently the current keepers of Schiller planned the ultimate in public displays. They got him onto the Colbert Report last night. That’s our Schiller, folks!

Friday Flowers

It’s been a weird week. I’m feeling very get-off-my-lawn-ish about a bunch of things that really don’t deserve my ire (as well as a couple of things that do). It’s cloudy and very windy and generally feels like I’ve stepped into a scene from Wuthering Heights. I’m tired. So yeah, things are generally blah.

Luckily, it happens to be Friday, and on Fridays at Carleton they sell flowers in the student union. Students buy flowers for each other and stick them into each others’ mail boxes, and every time I walk past those mail boxes (this time on my way to get hot chocolate) I fall in love with this tradition and this campus all over again.