At its weekly meeting on Tuesday, the Legislative Body (LB) overwhelmingly passed an amended resolution urging the Board of Trustees to postpone its vote on modifying Macalester’s need-blind admissions policy.

The resolution urges the Board of Trustees to delay the vote from January to May at the earliest. The vote was 28-4.

Humanities Representative RenÈe Lepreau ’06 presented the resolution at last week’s LB meeting, and it was voted down 15-4. Following the meeting, LB members engaged in a discussion of the issue via e-mail. Taking LB members’ suggestions into consideration, Lepreau modified the resolution.

“People have now had more time and they are feeling more comfortable with the resolution,” Lepreau said. “We showed that we wouldn’t give up, and that is important. I’m not surprised it passed.”

Lepreau removed the clause that read: “MCSG strongly urges, on behalf of the student body, the faculty to postpone their [advisory] vote on need-blind admissions until Spring 2005 at the earliest, or, in the event that the Board of Trustees refuses to allow for more time, in December at the earliest.”

The faculty currently plan to give their vote on whether or not to support the proposal at their November meeting, but an alternative resolution distributed by Peter Rachleff would delay that vote until the end of the year.

“I agree with the spirit of the proposal, but not with saying that we think the faculty haven’t had enough time to vote,” MCSG Vice President Cara Haberman ’06 said. “I would be offended if the faculty put out a resolution saying that the LB needs more time to consider the proposal. We should just strongly urge that the faculty should discuss need-blind admissions and consider everything involving the issue.”

Lepreau also changed the suggested date for the Board of Trustees vote from Fall 2005 to May 2005. Lepreau said she thinks the resolution passed in part because of that switch.

If the Board of Trustees were to vote in either January, as it currently plans to, or in May, any admissions policy change would be implemented in Fall 2005 and affect the class of 2010. If the Board of Trustees followed the resolution’s original demand for a vote next fall, then any new policy would apply beginning with the class of 2011.

MSCG Financial Update

Financial Affairs Committee (FAC) Chair Ben Johnson presented MCSG’s current financial situation. The government has $32,000 in operating funds, which are reserved for student organization funding. The capital fund, which is reserved for large, long-term projects, amounts to $67,000.

LB members voted to allot Fresh Concepts $524 for travel and accommodation costs for an upcoming Fall Break trip to Chicago; Macalester Democrats received $641 for a showing of Fahrenheit 9-11 on Oct. 25; Mac Players received $500 to put on a play during the first two weekends of December; STARSA received $600 for honorarium and travel costs for a speaker who visited the campus Oct. 8; Caribbean Students Association (CSA) received $1,638 to send students to a conference in Florida; WMCN received $2,000 for the purchase of an Apple G5, which will allow the radio station to expand its radio broadcast via Internet. The total amount dispensed by the LB amounted to $5,903.

“Beyond the Classroom: Faculty Perspective”

Biology Professor Jan Serie and Political Science Professor Paul Dosh kicked off the first of the weekly “Beyond the Classroom: Faculty Perspective” presentations with brief speeches on what it is like to be a professor at Macalester. “Beyond the Classroom” will feature different Macalester professors every week and is designed to give the LB an idea of faculty members’ duties outside of the classroom.

Serie noted four main faculty responsibilities. “Faculty see themselves as a renewable resource…I continually upgrade what I know by going to conferences and meeting with colleagues,” she said.

Second, Serie said that professors must constantly improve their professional skills. “Teaching is really, really hard to do. You always have to improve your skills and learn more about how to do such a hard job,” she said.

Third, faculty members are all involved with the college governance. “It is a labor intensive job in itself,” Serie said. Serie added that professors propose recommendations for different departments and the college budget, review curricular division and discuss tenure for professors.

Professors also play a role in logistics decisions, such as what books the library purchases, what e-mail system should be used, and when computers should be distributed, Serie said.

Dosh read an original poem about his average day, comically outlining his hectic schedule minute by minute. “Faculty members are very, very busy, but you should demand a lot of them, including involving them in your life outside of the classroom,” he said after the poem.