But we are rooted in this state. Carleton as an institution, and Carleton students, faculty and staff are committed to excellence in what they do. At the same time, this is not a place given much to elitism. Carleton students, faculty and staff are highly competitive in many respects, but they do so primarily by competing against their own standard of excellence. There's not a lot of competition among Carleton students for grades, performance or whatever.
People support one another's activities to a high degree here.
You'll find very few people here who are self-promoters, and that distinguishes us from a lot of other places. This is also a very diverse community of strongly individualistic people. Yet within this diversity and individualism there's a strong sense of support of one another, and a strong sense that we are one community in helping each other, particularly in times of stress or crisis. I think that's a useful way to think about it. Another characteristic of Carleton, and one we have to work at and remind one another about, is that we want to take issues seriously, but, let's never take ourselves too seriously.