Macalester College Student Government

Dear Macalester students, staff, faculty, and community members,

As some of you are aware, last spring a group of students began inviting and accepting housing requests from activists and protesters around the country for the Republic National Convention. Macalester College Peace and Justice/Students for a Democratic Society plan for a convergence, of up to 500 guests, using the main lawn as a camp ground.

Members of the College staff have been in contact with the student organization since first becoming aware of the invitation. The College's position is that guests are allowed at events and as guests of residents provided they follow existing College policy (the same as is applied during every other situation). MPJC/SDS is working with College staff to reserve large amounts of space for meetings, educational programs and social events during the time frame of the RNC. MPJC/SDS representatives and College staff have conducted at least five meetings to discuss plans and rationale.

The sticking point in discussion has been the issue of camping. The College has maintained that camping of this scale would not be permitted and that the College staff would not be able to take on the responsibility of managing such an endeavor, especially at the start of a school year. The College could not legally permit such an activity to take place, and is subject to fines if it were to occur. Adding this many additional residents to campus eliminates the Colleges ability to provide for the basic safety and welfare of the campus community and to reasonably guarantee that normal business of the College could be maintained. The College is permitting individual students to host guests during this period, as always expecting the host to take responsibility for their guest.

Certainly the Twin Cities and St. Paul in particular will be far from business as usual during this period. Even without the existence of a campground, the College will be strained to provide security and support to the proposed variety of events and number of anticipated daily visitors. Students, faculty and staff will have many opportunities to participate, experience and become involved in a wide variety of community activities during this period. These events will occur regardless of the housing situation.

MCSG executives have been aware of this situation, and involved in the discussions. The MCSG executive board affirms its support of MPJC/SDS's right to offer events and activities that take advantage of the unusual opportunity of the Republican National Convention. It also supports the responsibility of the College administration to make reasonable efforts to maintain the sense of safety and security we all expect.

We want the Republican National Convention to be a practical learning opportunity for all Macalester students. To that end, we encourage legal, safe activism and political involvement in many different forms. We ask that students choose their activities responsibly and respect the perspectives of their fellow students.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at cmirzayi@macalester.edu.

Thank you,

Chloe Mirzayi on behalf of the MCSG Executive Board

Hi Everyone,

I truly support much of what MPJC-SDS has done and seeks to do. I also admire many qualities that they possess. The week of the RNC will be a profound week for many people and I believe it will be a great atmosphere at Macalester both for learning and for discovery.

So, to me, the answer to Molly [Griffard]'s question is clear: Do we want this at our campus?....yes...

However, there are other important questions to ask ourselves concerning the housing aspect of this week. Would creating an environment with hundreds of people sleeping on campus at night be more counterproductive than productive? Would it limit someone's personal experience? Would it limit yours?

More importantly, would you be willing to take the responsibility for someone else's injury and have that irreversible event on your hands? For the sake of your vision?

The truth is, there is no right answer, there are only personal ones...

My personal opinion, which I believe is in agreement with the exec board, is that risks are presented in almost every action a person commits, but sometimes a line has to be drawn. I do not think we should base decisions solely off of policy, because policies change, but I know I would do my best to do the least harm in accordance with my vision and my values. Sometimes when you are so intent on one idea, something you seek so passionately, you turn yourself off to options that could be just a good. I admit with complete honesty, for good or bad, that I myself have recognized this emotion. I once heard: every action we take, everything we do, is either a victory or defeat in the struggle to become what we want to be.

And with that said, I admire many qualities of MPJC-SDS, their vision, and respect many of their endeavors, but I cannot support their refusal to listen to other housing options, which may result in the harm of other students.

[Vice President] Chloe Mirzayi is preparing a response to send out campus wide as a statement from MCSG concerning this subject. The purpose of this statement will be to inform, to explain the rationale behind our stance as an exec board and perhaps to stimulate some discussions.

Best,

Alison Tray

MCSG President

Hi all,

As you can tell, we've just created a new MCSG website. This site should be much easier to use, simpler, and generally more beautiful. Expect to see it updated much more frequently than the old one.

I am currently working on getting all the information sorted and online so some things may not work correctly or simply not exist yet. Any feedback can be directed to me (cmirzayi@macalester.edu). I will try to resolve issues quickly, especially if they're important.

I hope you're all excited about this as I am!

Wow isn't this so much easier than messing around with code!

Anyone with a computer can do this so Chloe doesn't have to all the time. It makes things so easy for me. Yay.

Hi all,

I know you must be as excited with the new web design as I am. This is a vast improvement over previous designs. All of which have kinda stunk it up big time. Hopefully this design will be much improved because:

1. It has a much simpler layout making finding forms and other documents a breeze.
2. It's easier to maintain for everyone.
3. I hopefully won't have to spend hours hunched over a computer trying to find something in the soup of horrible code that was the last website.

Of course there will be problems and mistakes along the way. So if you notice any, please contact me and I'll do my best to fix them.

This hopefully puts us a long way towards our goal of improved communication and transparency in student government.

Thanks!

MCSG members, I have some exciting news! This year we'll be getting t-shirts. You can see a template of them here:
These shirts will be printed on organic, sustainable, sweatshop-free, (hopefully American) cotton using eco-friendly, water-based inks. This means the shirts won't just be environmentally friendly, they'll be super soft and high quality to boot! We're working with different printers to get the best prices on them. More information will be available shortly.