<p>I am shocked frankly, that for the second time in under two weeks the glass front of the vending machines in Burton have been broken, presumably by someone who got too drunk on a Friday night. In addition to that, the Burton Dining hall was broken into a few weeks ago by some drunk Carleton students who broke through a window and stole some things from the kitchen. They were subsequently arrested and charged with breaking and entering. </p>
<p>I came here thinking that Carleton students would be more intelligent and mature than most students in most large universities, but apparently that is not the case. What is going on here? Is the Carleton culture changing, or has it always been this way? It seems like the former, as the administration is steadily cutting back on our freedoms because students can't manage to handle themselves in a respectful way, especially when alcohol is involved. I wouldn't be surprised if they seriously tried to crack down on underage drinking in the next few years, because Carleton's policy of treating students as responsible adults doesn't appear to be working. Of course I don't want this to be the case, I don't want to relinquish my freedoms, but if people continue to act as they've been acting, that's what is going to happen. </p>
<p>Maybe it's not the Carleton culture, but American culture generally that is like this, but even so, that doesn't make it any better. Carleton students should have respect for their college, for the staff that run it, the professors that teach them, the buildings that house them. But many don't, and I'm not sure why.</p>
<p>Your posts are always negative - you must be unhappy at Carleton. Yes, bad things happen - everywhere. What is your reasoning for just picking on the “bad” things? Maybe you should work to change things on campus by getting more involved - and less complaining.</p>
<p>You claim to be a Carleton senior but keep posting threads asking questions about your own school??? ALL somehow subtly or overtly negative.</p>
<p>In case you’ve forgotten your prior threads:</p>
<p>“Carleton Kids Disrespectful?”
“Are You Happy With Your Carleton Experience Overall?”
“What is the average household income of Carleton students? Is there an atmosphere of classism (intentional or unintentional) at all at Carleton?”
“How prevalent is pot at Carleton? Is it easy to buy? I’ve heard meth is the drug of choice in Minnesota, does that mean pot is relatively hard to come by?”</p>
<p>That last one is a personal favorite. When you’ve been called out on this your response has been “I’m just messin with you guys.” Messed up indeed.</p>
<p>I’m secretly an Ole, sorry I was just messin’ with you guys. In all seriousness, these are issues that need to be talked about, but everyone on this website, and every other website that I’ve seen, seems to be delusionally positive about Carleton. I think it’s more valuable (it certainly would have been more valuable to me making my college choice), to see the whole picture, not just the good stuff.</p>
<p>The whole picture? This is not the whole picture. If you wanted to show the whole picture, you’d acknowledge that while there are jerks at Carleton just like everywhere else, the vast majority of the students are appalled by this type of behavior. Who do you think cleaned up after the vending machine incident? That would be the RAs on duty…also Carleton students.</p>
<p>“Delusionally positive?” Please provide links to such “delusional” threads. </p>
<p>If you really do see problems in our campus culture (and there are problems, just like there are problems everywhere), perhaps it would be a more productive use of your time to attend one of the many events hosted by campus orgs that would give you a chance to talk about issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, and others as they affect Carleton and the world beyond. Posting on a website intended for prospies is unlikely to lead to change.</p>
<p>Well, here’s the perspective of a parent of a freshman. Throughout high school, S had little tolerance for disrespectful and immature behavior–it really bothers him. All of his comments about Carleton have been overwhelmingly positive. If there truly was a campus culture of drunken, rude, disrespectful behavior at Carleton, I’m pretty sure we’d have heard about it. I’m betting the incident described here is not the norm.</p>
<p>That’s funny…I’ve read some posts here, and yes people have some very rose colored glasses on the forum. Don’t get me wrong, I’m an older Carl and I really liked Carleton, but some of these posts I’ve read here are over the top with the positiveness. </p>
<p>…so let me give a different perspective. I was at Carleton over a decade ago, and crazy and unfortunate stuff with alcohol was very frequent, and student alcohol consumption was a huge issue that dominated the school just like seems to be today. Cleavelandude, if you care, you could read the Carletonians from the 90’s to get a perspective on this. </p>
<p>In my responses on this forum, I’ve warned about the alcohol issues here. The place is very wet. If you you are bothered by alcohol consumption by students, Carleton probably isn’t the right place for you. I wasn’t that bothered, and tried to enjoy what the place had to offer. I enjoyed a drink now and again too! </p>
<p>Cleavelandude, if you want to gripe, you should gripe. CC is as good a place as any for that I think, but I’d recommend staying specific. Also, try to find some positive things about Carleton. I found plenty. I griped too, but on the whole it wasn’t so bad. If you can’t find anything you like about the place, my sincere advice is to transfer.</p>
<p>Jack, you know there’s nothing unique about Carleton on the alcohol front. If memory serves, you’re in grad school at Mich now (convenient to be able to recycle the Blue and Maize ;)). Northfield - a veritable desert compared with Ann Arbor.</p>
<p>Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell, Duke, Northwestern, Amherst, Bowdoin, Williams, Middlebury, the list goes on and on. The alcohol flows pretty freely no matter what the school colors. Where does one go to find a campus of teatotalers? Colleges I know where alcohol flows less freely are also places where even less legal options dominate the campus scene (with medicinal intent, of course). At least at Carleton one can worship the religion of abstinence side by side with John Barleycorn practitioners in relative harmony. Ommmmm. :)</p>
<p>hahahah this post makes me laugh so much! especially i love 1190’s posts (you seem to know everyone’s background info) haha but i complete agree with you. I believe alcohol is an issue at every school and it’s definitely not just at Carleton. :)</p>
<p>and when i first saw the title of this thread, i was at disbelief because the people at Carleton were anything but disrespectful. When I was visited the college last summer, EVERYONE was extremely friendly, and the people there was actually the number one reason I loved this college.</p>
<p>So it’s been broken twice. You don’t have to buy this, but they’re likely by the same people. So that’s one, or two at the most. I don’t know if you’re just living in the Carleton bubble but if Carls are disrespectful we’re a nation of scoundrels. Carleton kids are kids, and there are ones with behavioral problems, just like everywhere else. I tend to think our problems are trivial compared to most other schools. I’m not going to be “delusional” here. I have been disappointed as a freshman with some aspects of life here, whether academic or social, but I’m not going to pretend it’s necessarily better anywhere else. In fact, Carleton does very well on a number of fronts.</p>
<p>I had the opportunity to talk about this very thread with three polite Carleton freshmen who were here for Spring Break (S and 2 friends). They had not heard of the vending machine incidents and seemed puzzled by the topic in general. They concurred that yes, there are occasional obnoxious drunks at Carleton, but by and large it was generally a respectful student body and probably more so than many (if not most) colleges.</p>
<p>The fact is Pootie, that Carleton, being a rural school without a lot of opportunities for off-campus socialization, is big on drinking. Why don’t you come here on a saturday night and see for yourself? Every week in the Carletonian there are at least 3 reports of students being taken to the hospital, or checked on by security for alcohol poisoning. The campus is wetter than most, whether you care to believe it or not. Your freshmen either don’t want to tell you about that particular aspect of life here for whatever reason, or they, being freshmen, are not fully aware of the extent of it.</p>
<p>“Wetter than most”? Have you seen what big state schools look like on Sunday mornings? I don’t mean to insult those schools–many of my friends attend them. Sure, Carleton is a wet campus, but it has neither a Greek system nor a huge sports culture. With the exception of Rotblatt, you rarely hear of students getting up at 6am to drink on the day of a big game/event and continuing to drink throughout the day.</p>
<p>It seems like the College is reporting this type of stuff more frequently than they did 10 or so years ago. This is positive, and hopefully will prevent very bad things from happening. When I was there it happened regularly, but I never read about it or heard about it in the Carletonian or elsewhere. From all I can tell it actually seems like Carleton is less crazy in terms of alcohol than 10 to 15 years ago.</p>
<p>For future students (or anyone, really), I highly recommend reading the Carletonian’s Security Blotter (available online at [The</a> Carletonian](<a href=“http://apps.carleton.edu/carletonian/]The”>The Carletonian)). Not only does it list all the mischief that Carleton students get up to, but it is often hilarious (see [The</a> Carletonian: 2010 Fall Issue 4](<a href=“The Carletonian”>The Carletonian)).</p>