MCSG seeks student involvement

Dear Editor:

I was happy when I read your article, Jesse Mortensen. You gave concrete suggestions that MCSG will be considering in the year to come. You told us what you thought we lacked, and how you thought we could improve. I strongly believe that it is criminal to say the former without the latter.

MCSG’s job is to represent the student body effectively. Our role is neutralized if we don’t know what students want from us. That’s why we love surveys, focus groups, forums and any other structures by which we can make it easy for students to tell us what they want. That’s why such articles are so helpful.

There is one request I will make of you, Jesse, as I would of any other student who wants to see MCSG succeed. Towards the end of your article, you write that The Mac Weekly and MCSG should lead the debate on how MCSG can improve its representational role, both on campus and in the broader community. I ask that you lead the debate instead. You can expect that MCSG will join in

For if there is one misconception that can forever prevent MCSG from realizing its goal of effective student representation, it is that I, the other Execs, or any of the other MCSG members, should be more invested in MCSG than any other Macalester student. Sure, I’ll look like an ineffectual idiot if MCSG is not effective this year. But in the long term, it will be Macalester’s student body that will lose out. That’s because MCSG has the resources and mandate to channel student voices in a manner that will make the administration stop and listen, more so than any other method of protest. But we simply cannot do it by ourselves. So you must involve your self beyond stating what change you want to see. You must help create the change. You can count on MCSG to provide you with the resources to do so.

We at MCSG are your elected representatives – it’s up to you to get involved and hold us accountable. So I invite you, Jesse, to initiate the dialogue about what concrete steps MCSG can take to improve its role as a legitimate form of student representation at Macalester.

Haris Aqeel ’04

MCSG President