MW: How do your last weeks at Macalester compare to your last weeks at Williams?

MM: The last couple of months I was at Williams I was out at Mac for commencement, and meeting with alumni for reunion weekend, doing interviews with the school paper and the Mac Today and all that. In that way, it’s really different. Going to be the president of a foundation there’s not that public side. All of the very public aspects of my life are really changing at this point.
 

MW: Do you feel like you are leaving Macalester at a time when the college is strong, or do you feel a sense that you need to stay on a little longer? Kind of like how Mayor Guiliani said that he needed to continue as mayor for a third term?

MM: (laughs) Well, we saw how the world reacted to Mayor Giuliani. Everybody admired the way he handled 9/11; I think he seemed to allow himself maybe to think briefly that he was indispensable. And I’ve never thought I was indispensable, so I’m not at all worried about Macalester’s future. Everybody in higher education, public and private, is going to have to go through a transition to a different financial world. The 90s were an unreproducable decade and the next five years are going to be a time of making some tough choices. Macalester’s going to do a great job of that, I think we have extremely able people in the key positions, and we have a faculty that is really committed to the mission of the place … and a superb staff. There are always things that you’re in the middle of and you would like to follow these things through. But I have great confidence in the college’s future and this has never been a one-man show.
 

MW: The Minnesota Daily reported there are currently bills on the floor of the Texas and Florida state legislatures that would restrict the number of international students attending universities and receiving financial aid. Are international students facing an uphill battle attending colleges in the U.S?

MM: I do worry about the climate in the country. I think it’s very short-sighted view that it’s somehow in our security interest or in our national interest to clamp down on the entry of our international students. I think it’s the case that one of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 had come into the country on a student visa, and the eighteen others had come into the country on other kinds of visas. So, of course we want to do a good job of screening people at border points, and that’s a legitimate function—but the idea that there should be some kind of, almost paranoid reaction to international students? I think the right way to think about this in the long-run is the security of this country is going to depend on how we are viewed in the world and how our conduct leads us to be viewed in the world. And, there’s no better way to educate Americans about the world or to educate the people from other countries about the U.S. than to promote international education in both directions.
 

MW: I understand that you have a big musical performance Friday.

MM: Yeah I am responding to a request from Habitat for Humanity. The Habitat group at Macalester has done some great work this year, they collaborated with folks from several other colleges and from some high schools in the Cities to rehabilitate a house… on Dayton Avenue, and it’s done. They’ve done a fantastic job, but they haven’t yet raised enough money to pay for all the materials in the house … so we’re doing a fundraiser on May 2. The deal is that, if Habitat raises $300, my wife and I are going to match that with $500 and I’m gonna play guitar in Bateman Plaza from 12–1.
 

MW: Really? And what happens if they don’t raise that money?

MM: Well, they’re just out of luck.
 

MW: You’re not going to play?

MM: No! This is a deal … this is a fundraising challenge … You know Matt McGrath ’03?
 

MW: I’m familiar with Mr. McGrath.

MM: Yeah, he was over at the house today, we were learning some songs … he’s gonna be my partner. He sings, which I don’t do and he actually plays guitar, which really I don’t do either. But we’ll both be there strumming away.
 

MW: So, this would theoretically be the second McPherson performance in a week because your son played [at Springfest].

MM: That’s right, and it will be the second Mike McPherson concert in seven years because I played at my inauguration.
 

MW: Oh really? How did that go?

MM: That was so much fun! I was terrified. You know, we had a great party, one of the best parties Macalester has put on. We’re not great at parties at Macalester, small-campus kind of thing. But after my inauguration we had the field house set up with two stages, and we had 10 or 12 bands play. At that time both my sons were in the same band which was called Catfish Blue, and they were the headliners. They were a blues band, and they played two sets and I played a song in each set with them, and I’ll tell you: giving an inaugural address … I was calm as could be…Playing guitar in front of a thousand people, my hands were shaking so bad I could hardly hold onto the guitar
 

MW: How long have you played guitar?

MM: Well, on and off since I was in graduate school but it’s mostly been off. I played a fair amount for a couple years before I came to Macalester. Pretty much the switch has been off the last couple years so this is a pretty traumatic event for me. But we’ll have fun—it’s for a good cause—and Matt can really play.
 

MW: We’ll be hearing a lot of Jimi Hendrix?

MM: Well, we’re doing an acoustic show, we’re doing "Hey Joe" which is a great song that Jimi Hendrix made famous. We’ll do a couple of Beatles tunes and a couple of blues things but they’re all going to be acoustic so you’re not going to see any sort of pyrotechnic guitar display.
 

MW: I’m sure there will be surprises.

MM: Yeah, if I am actually able to play a chord, it’ll be a surprise.
 

MW: How do you feel about going back to Chicago?

MM: Chicago is a great city. Having lived in the frozen north for so long, you’d think if you’re making a move you’d actually make a bigger change in the weather than you get in going from Minnesota to Chicago. I think the Twin Cities are a great place to live and Chicago in many ways is a bigger version but there are some real differences—one big lake instead of 10,000 little lakes. We’ll be living downtown in a high rise apartment. My commute will be 45 stories down, one block over and 39 stories up. When my wife and I left Chicago in 1974, the mayor’s name was Richard Daley. We’re returning in 2003 and the mayor’s name is Richard Daley. Some things don’t change.
 

MW: Will Florida or Arizona be in your future?

MM: Definitely not Florida. I’m not a fan of Florida, nothing against the state. I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Except for that three-month sabbatical in New Orleans, I’ve never lived in a place that didn’t have winter and I suspect I never will.
 

MW: As long as you don’t have to shovel…

MM: I keep trying to find jobs that don’t involve shoveling snow.
 

MW: The [Spencer] Foundation isn’t going to make you shovel anything?

MM: Well not snow. One could argue that in these jobs one shovels a lot of stuff … but it’s not snow.
 

MW: Are you familiar with the David A. Lanegran Memorial Shovel?

MM: No I’m not.
 

MW: You’ll have to talk to the Geography Department. Speaking of the Geography Department, what challenges were presented this year when talk of consolidating departments was brought up?

MM: I think challenges is the right word because the thing that the College is challenged to do is deliver the best education we possibly can. In doing that, putting squarely before us the issue of "do we have the right number and right set of departments and programs?" I think that’s a great question to ask. The challenge is to go about it constructively…some really creative and constructive ideas have come forward. I think this new American Studies major that’s being talked about that would pull together CNAS and African American Studies is a good example of that and the stuff that’s being worked out with Communications Studies is another good example. So it’s obviously tough for people and we need to do a good job of it but you have to get those questions on the table.
 

MW: There were some concerns, complaints from students; in trying to make Macalester, as you said, the best experience possible and that perhaps consolidating these departments would do that, there’s a question does Macalester lose its uniqueness in offering Communication Studies, in offering Education, in offering Geography and Urban Studies. Is there value in uniqueness and is that something that’s being taken into account? How would consolidating those departments, if they were consolidated help the uniqueness of Macalester?

MM: Certainly there’s value in uniqueness. In being unique we also want to be truly excellent and sometimes that’s going to imply reorganizing the way we do things. I don’t think our commitment to helping students becoming urban geographers, and the tremendous insights that can be brought from a geographic perspective are being given up. I don’t think we’re going to stop helping students improve their communications skills, and we’re not going to stop providing opportunities on the pathway to becoming teachers. But we can’t assume that we’re always going to do all those things the same way in the same organizational structure from now until forever. We have to continue to emphasize our strengths but we have to challenge ourselves to do things in new ways and look for the best ways to do it.
 

MW: If The Mac Weekly were to set up a pool tournament between now and the end of the year, would you participate?

MM: Sure, scheduling could be tricky but yeah, if we can pull it off…
 

MW: We do understand pool is among your favorites.

MM: I like to play pool. I think if you talk to Patrick [D’Silva ’03] or the people I’ve played with, they’d say I held up my end alright: nine-ball, eight-ball … you name it, I play it.
 

MW: Well we’ve got a serious pool player here. Thank you on behalf of The Mac Weekly and good luck in Chicago.

MM: And good luck to The Mac Weekly.