President David R. Anderson '74 has announced the appointment of Marci Sortor as provost and dean of the college. Sortor, vice president for institutional planning and acting vice president for college and alumni relations at Grinnell College, succeeds James M. May, who has served in that capacity since 2002.

Benjamin Simmons '12 is "incredibly honored and excited" to have received the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for the 2011–12 academic year. He is one of 29 St. Olaf students to be awarded this scholarship since 1995.

For the first time in 20 years, the two ensembles led by Timothy Mahr '78 — the St. Olaf Band and Minnesota Symphonic Winds — will perform a joint concert, giving five bandies the opportunity to make music alongside their parents.

Kara McGuire's "Tips to pass the tuition test" in the Star Tribune called in a number of college financial aid experts for advice, including St. Olaf's own Kathy Ruby, dean of student financial aid.

Jennifer Kirmsse Middleton '92, who has been living in the United Kingdom for 20 years, recently helped craft a handful of souvenirs that will commemorate the April 29 wedding between Prince William and Catherine Middleton, her husband's second cousin.

Dan Rather, managing editor and anchor of the television news magazine Dan Rather Reports and former news anchor for CBS Evening News, will speak at St. Olaf April 28.

On the 50th anniversary of his "double-threepeat," emeritus faculty member David Wee '61 got a surprise that he’s "still smiling about."

Associate Professor of Religion James Hanson '83 has been selected to participate in a seminar at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., this summer titled "Transforming Troubling Tellings: The History of the Deicide Charge and the Holocaust."

After researching her family's experience in a Japanese American internment camp during World War II, Mara Kumagai Fink '11 designed a project to teach fifth-graders — 300 so far — about this often ignored part of American history.

Finance & Commerce, the state's only independent daily newspaper dedicated to business reporting, has posted two stories about last week's Economic Summit hosted by St. Olaf.

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison will visit campus April 19 to deliver a lecture titled "Vision for America: An Ever-Expanding Embrace," which will focus on his experiences with religion and politics.

St. Olaf Choir Conductor Anton Armstrong '78 recently served as guest conductor of one of Taiwan's premier choral ensembles, the 35-voice Formosa Singers.

An "externship" in the nation's capital earlier this year prompted 10 St. Olaf students to think about far more than career paths. "I learned a lot about not only what I want to do when I graduate, but also about how I see myself being involved in this global community," says Leon Clark '12.

Axel C. Bundgaard, professor emeritus of physical education and dance, died April 14 at his home in Burnsville, Minnesota. Thousands of students learned various ballroom dance techniques from Bundgaard during the more than two decades he taught on the Hill.

In addition to writing two chapters for the forthcoming Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences, Science Librarian Charles Priore Jr. has been named co-editor of The Ammo Encyclopedia.

When Isaac Enderson was a student at St. Olaf, tuition was $72 a semester, the football team wore leather helmets, and dancing was forbidden. And the 1929 graduate, who just celebrated his 105th birthday, remembers it all like it was yesterday.

Like Vanderbilt and Marymount Universities, St. Olaf is paying attention to grandparents during family weekends — even distributing name tags like those pictured — and the Washington Post is taking note.

Gus DeMann '12 has spent the past year training for the prestigious Boston Marathon, but he's done it Ole-style — fitting it into a schedule that juggles sports, theatre productions, work, and managing the course load that comes with majoring in physics and Spanish.

Emily Marie Sandquist '13 took top honors in this year's Maurine Dallas Watkins Translation Contests, upholding an annual tradition at St. Olaf that has lasted more than three decades.

Rebecca Carlson '11 didn't like maple syrup when she was growing up. But once she learned about the labor-intensive process used to make it, she just had to start tapping St. Olaf's maple trees.

Renewed funding for the Polaris Project will send at least three St. Olaf students to the Siberian Arctic this summer and will provide funding for four more summers of researchers in the future.

Although St. Olaf's study abroad program sends hundreds of students abroad every year, you don't have to leave campus to experience the sights, sounds, and flavors of other lands.

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has appointed Professor of Music Nancy Paddleford to the board of the Perpich Center for Arts Education, a comprehensive, tuition-free public high school that also works to improve statewide teaching and learning in and through the arts.

Instructor in Economics Sian Muir is the recipient of this year's Gertrude Hilleboe Award for Faculty Involvement in Student Life. "She has worked tirelessly to provide activities that allow our students to enhance skills and gain confidence," reads her nomination.