The weather was beautiful on Monday, April 15, 2002. The tank tops were out, the temperature was high and Mac students were lying on the lawn getting sunburned. That’s probably why only five students showed up for the Strategic Directions Implementation Task Force open forum (see article page 1)-and that’s including a Mac Weekly reporter.

The weather was beautiful, yes. But there’s no way around it-that’s a really lame excuse. In fact, you are all just really lame, and that includes all The Mac Weekly staff members, including some who are helping to write this editorial, who did not attend. In six months, the task forces will have issued their proposals, proposals will have been discussed and changed and approved, the school will start implementing them … and y’all are going to be complaining about how your voices weren’t heard. And we’re not going to want to hear about it in your angry letters to the editor.

Luckily, you haven’t missed your chance. The task forces are still in the discussion stages. They still want your input. So talk to the student representatives, or talk to the task force chairs, and let them know what you think. The list of chairs and student reps is on page 3.

What impact does the lack of housing options have on your Mac experience? What do you want your new athletic facilities to look like? How should the facilities task force address environmental design? Talk to the folks on the facilities task force.

How should interdisciplinary majors be structured? Should we add a math requirement, a humanities requirement, a writing proficiency requirement? Should we create a multicultural studies program and what should it look like? How should we cut back on expenditures? Should we become need-aware or increase the student:faculty ratio? Talk to the task force on academic quality and structure.

What kind of student space do you want at Macalester? What do you think about the Doty Game Room? Talk to the task force on the student learning experience.

We’re not letting the task forces themselves off the hook. Most of the task forces distributed summaries of their activities at the open forums. Those summaries need to be made available online, if they aren’t already. Students can’t provide input if they don’t know what they’re commenting on.

The task force on academic program quality and structure has a great Web site set up where folks can read their letter to the faculty and comment on it (it’s at www.macalester.edu/taskforce). Every task force should have a similar Web site and a discussion board. And you should send out a Bulletin telling everyone exactly how to get there.

We know you all are busy, just like us. We don’t care. This is the future of the college we’re talking about. This is your future we’re talking about. Don’t be lame.