Commissions


Presidential Commission

The presidential commission deals with mainly the oddball tasks around campus. This next year I’d like to continue to make textbooks more affordable to a wider range of students, by continuing to oversee the textbook proposal to allow students to charge textbooks to their student accounts via their student ID. Also, I’d like to help start a textbook scholarship fund to help students of most need. Along with this, we’ll be working on bringing more forms of interactive art (murals, sculptures etc) to campus and in the dorms.

We’d also help make MCSG more transparent by holding events like “win a lunch date with an exec of your choice” and get a dog to walk around campus with a cape that asks people to come to open forum (the first ten minutes of the LB meeting where students can come and voice concerns).

I’d also like to make MCSG more student-friendly by collaborating with different organizations and generally getting involved around campus.

External Relations Commission

The ERC’s goal is to communicate with the student body. Whether it’s postering for an election, updating the website, or developing creative new ways to share information, the ERC is nearly constantly busy.

The work typically includes lots of communication. That means phone calls, e-mails, and office visits to a variety of people. We’ll also continue the tradition started by previous VP Brian Stephenson and plan a Facilities Management Appreciation event. As head of this committee I want to expand creative advertising and ensure that everyone at Mac knows what MCSG is and what we can do for them.

Student Services Commission

The goal of the Student Services Commission is mainly to deal with the chartering process for old and new student organizations. From my knowledge this has been the primary focus of this position and commission however this year I would like the commission to focus on the student body as a whole. I know that there are many issues and projects that the Presidential commission would like to handle but there is little time to do so. It could be the job of the SSC to take over some of these abandoned projects and requests.

I also know that people who have joined the legislative body are here because they would like to make a change on campus for the students. Everyone on the SSC will have a chance to work on a certain vision or concerns that they have for the campus.

This year the primary goal for the SSC will be to make ourselves much more acquainted with every student organization on campus. Our second goal will be to make ourselves much more visible to the student body by delegating various tasks and projects that will allow the commission members to make the changes that they see need to be made.

Academic Affairs Commission

The role of Academics Affairs Commission deals with almost anything academic on campus. We have two EPAG (Education Policy And Governance) reps and one IGC (Institute for Global Citizenship) rep. For the 2008-2009 year I currently have two projects that I am interested in working on.

The first is to work to establish a project based grant program at Macalester to create funding for academic or experiential rooted projects. I see this as an "in-house" version of programs and grants that are currently only available outside of Macalester or to graduates of the school such as the Watson Fellowship, or Fulbright Grants.

Second, I want to look into and start a discussion around Macalester's current study abroad policy, which does not allow for the possibility for students to travel or receive credit in any country listed The US State Department's Travel Warning list. I do not foresee a completely unrestricted policy, however, other institutions do not have such a cut and dry restrictive policy and have other methods for evaluating whether or not it is appropriate for a particular student to study in a specific country or region.

Financial Affairs Commission

The Financial Affairs Commission is the body that doles out money to student orgs so that they can accomplish their missions. We do this through a two-step approach: we approve budgets, and also approve Additional Allocation Requests. Budgets are for events that can be planned far in advance (along the lines of a semester) and AARs are for events that are more short term. Some things that will be different about the FAC this semester are increased communication with the student orgs, including more prompt notification of AAR results, and more collaboration with the Student Affairs Commission.

Program Board

Program Board is a committee composed of competitive applicants who were selected to fill one of our six positions on the board. These positions are: Concerts & Festivals (composed of two coordinators), Off-Campus Events, Lectures, MacCinema and After Hours. Along with the chair and our advisor, our total count comes to eight people.

In general, Program Board plans a diverse array of educational and social activities throughout the year for the entire campus. These include: Welcome Week, MacIdol, The Macalester Student Film Festival, Springfest, subsidized Timberwolves tickets and speaking arrangements such as Desmond Tutu.

As our new coordinators have already been chosen for the academic year of 2008-2009, we are currently working together to plan Welcome Week at the end of August. Although no LB representatives are directly eligible to participate on the board, ideas and reflections on events that take place around the campus are more than welcomed.

Attend a Meeting!

The Legislative Body meets every Tuesday at 7 pm in Weyerhaeuser Boardroom. Community members are always welcome. Calendar of this year's meetings.

Quick Forms

Files are provided in a pdf format and may viewed using a pdf reader such as Adobe Reader. The budget template is an XLS file and requires Microsoft Excel, Google Docs, or equivalent software.