Student Forum/Minutes1
from the Macalester Public Knowledge Base
These are the minutes from the first Student Forum, on October 16th, 2005.
At the first Student Forum nearly 60 students:
- Listened to music and spoken word, met new people, made new friends, drank tea and ate pizza
- Shared ideas and concerns about Macalester
- Broke into groups to envision possible solutions
- Discussed current campaigns and issues
- Evaluated the Forum and signed up for working groups
[edit] Writings
Here are some of the things that people wrote down in the opening section! Responses to things already written are marked. Awesome and keep adding, DB.
- Sweat-free campus
- More continuity in student initiatives
- How can we fight apathy and encourage passion especially in an “intellectual?community?
- More “community?discussions/workshops (ex. Humanist Movement wkshops)
- Make existing discussions accessible: i.e. don’t take certain knowledge/political/activist philosophies for granted
- Board for meeting minutes from all the orgs in SORC
- Can Mac Mondays be less bad and more good? How can it be less obnoxious and more subtle and meaningful
- Change “school spirit?as fostered not through uniformism/consumerism but through Macalester’s mission statement of social justice
- More environmentalism
- Weekly idea about how to make Mac more sustainable?!
- More recycling and a stricter recycling policies, way too much paper and plastic gets thrown away
- More Org advertising
- How to connect student orgs to the community?
- Communal raking and jumping in huge leaf piles (plus a second)
- What spaces can we use to talk more about whiteness
- There is a white identity collective sponsored by Multicultural office exactly for this!
- Racism on campus and in activism
- Increase communication between cultural orgs/activist groups
- Don’t just throw out leftover Caf?Mac food, donate to students? Ect?
- Removing exclusivity/stigma of “multi-culture racism?to make Mac more inclusive and safe!
- Yes and not promoting a separate “international student?group
- Bonfires!
- Student Space: A Student Union for all of us.
- Making existing spaces more comfortable, accessible, and open to students: eg. Women's Resource Center!
- Display Student Art!
- More artwork in general (what about the lame white dorm walls? eh?)
- Support local and alternative economies through more Local Food in Cafe Mac and other eating spaces.
- Approaching action at Mac from a model of systemic change, giving students realpower and voice.
- Faculty and administration should give time and credit for organizing and engaging the community; more action-focused school projects, research, and more.
- Give RA's more power; have dorms and floor make their own rules!
- Dorm focus on environmental and societal sustainability.
- Roof access!! Roof-gardens or green-roofing!
- Student trustees!
- More empowering, less clique-promoting orientation!
- Sustainability orientation!
- Increase gender-open housing, create more options on forms, rather than just male/ female.
- Energy Efficiency!
- What would get students involved? Interested? Active?
- Create an alternative Student Master plan (more student control, no parking garage/more bike paths, etc.)
- Make a Gazebo! Ice rink! And other fun all-campus spaces(and other projects)
- Get faculty more involved
- Encourage physical activity/healthy living
- Save the swings!/More public playthings
- Sustainability Orientation
- More themed housing/co-ops
- Administrative accountability re: Green buildings
- (participatory) Action Research
- The Experimental College/Skill Share (learn from and teach each other and community members skills)
- Interdependent Studies
- Keep the Mulch garden! <--- Compost w/ Cafe Mac
- Administration should pro-actively encourage student involvement & social justice!
- Organizing Trainings/Skill building
- Make Study Abroad Easier <--- and also give financial aid to Intl. Students to do so!
- Roof gardens on dorms: open roofs.
- Open darkrooms?
- Intentional space for org leaders to network
- Skill Share
- Use paper cups instead of styrofoam for Mac events <---Work study dishwashers <---More productive and + needed + useful workstudy positions
- Find ways to make more people @ Mac feel welcome to claim the label “activist,?not to be intimidated by “radicalism.?
- More student input on course offerings.
- More alternative, unique courses.
- Prominent More Recycling bins
- Less bureaucratic application process.
- More all-campus fun!
- BUREAUCRATIC TRANSPARENCY
- Collective fun & shenanigans ?Primal scream, pillow fights, capture the flag, streaking, etc.
- Don’t always clean up the leaves/ (Leave some nice piles around).
- Collect all the student papers about Macalester. –Building institutional memory <--- Amen, comprehensive institutional history of student activism ?what’s been done, what we’ve learned.
[edit] Main Points
After meeting in small discussion groups, everyone came back together to share their thoughts. Here are the main points that were raised (and please add to this if I missed something, or an idea that came up in the small group did not make it to the large group), Molly
[edit] Academics
- Make classes more accountable to students—importance of mid-term evaluations
- Feeling a gap between theory (class) and practice (everything outside of class)
- the need for greater emphasis on student praxis projects
- Supporting individually-designed majors, independent studies, and interdependent studies
- Involving faculty in non-class parts of our lives
- Skill-share/Experimental college
- This is a program to share student and community knowledge; students can lead workshops in anything (bike mechanic skills, green urban planning skills, screen-printing skills) that other students can attend. Over time this program could expand into an experimental college where any student or community member could take or teach a course; a different way to look at access to education
[edit] Physical space
- Concrete methods for communication; desire for a physical campus that facilitates and makes visible student conversations, projects, and organizations
- Finding a student space for activism-be this a room, building, or bulletin boards to share information and make permanent our work
- Ensuring that green buildings are truly green
- Where will the MULCH garden and swing-set be located after construction of the new athletic facility?
- Developing an alternative student masterplan
[edit] Divisions
- International/domestic students—this is a result of orientation, but how can we keep doors open?
- Upperclassmen/underclassmen
- Need for mentoring and other relationships
[edit] Communication
- Utilizing the Student Union website-www.mpkb.net
- Using the Arts and Events calendar online
- Learning getting support from Alumni
- Everyone coming together, not coming up with more individual meetings
- Townhall meeting with reports from all of the campus committees
- Publication with committee reports
- Communication between student representatives and students
- Weekly e-mail updates of LB activities
[edit] Separation from Decision Making/Lack of Willingness to Implement Student Issues
- Finding ways to involve students in the decision making process
- Connecting LB and Student Reps to the broader community so student-centered ideas come up
- Frustration with things like the Master Plan where students give input, and then others make the plan and students are expected to feel involved when they actually feel excluded
- Worries about things like MULCH Garden, they need space soon! We have a promise but it needs to mean something fast
- Etc, etc please add as you see fit...
[edit] Social responsibility
- Purchasing
- Investing—community banking
- Coalition-building between MULCH, Mac Students for Trade Justice, and MPIRG for local food in the cafeteria
[edit] Residential life
- More control of the space we live in through programs like:
- More art in the dorms and across campus
- Gender-open housing
- RAs as representatives and informants, not police
[edit] Other
- How can students actually affect change here?
- Connecting to alumni/alumni as allies
- Where do we go from here?
- Sustaining energy
- Institutionalizing this through/with MCSG?
[edit] Action Announcements
Students made announcements about the following projects:
- Macalester International Organization is sponsoring meal donations during fall break to raise money for earthquake victims in Pakistan; MIO members will be tabling in the downstairs Campus Center for a few days prior to break
- You can still join Macalester Peace and Justice's Zombie Army to counter US militarism and imperialism
- Minnesota Public Interest Research Group (MPIRG), Mac Students for Trade Justice, and Macalester Urban Land and Community Health (MULCH) are joining together on a social justice/local food in the cafeteria campaign.
- Student Labor Action Coalition (SLAC) is bringing WalMart factory employees for a panel discussion in the next few weeks
- The fieldhouse planning is still going on, watch out and make sure that the building is actually green; create an alternate student masterplan?
- The Institute for Global Studies and Citizenship will be launched in some capacity this spring--speak up and ensure that the college is accountable to their stated plans to meaningfully bring together multiculturalism, internationalism, and civic engagement
- In the coming weeks students hope to start a skill-share program; this will be a series of workshops with students teaching each other
- This weekend twelve of us are going to Madison for a conference on Democratizing Higher Education; we will do a follow-up to share what we learned
[edit] Working Groups
[edit] Student Union/ Student Spaces/ Infoshop
cleung@macalester.edu; ssmith@macalester.edu; amacmartin@macalester.edu; jtanzman@macalester.edu; mbowen@macalester.edu; egoldsmith@macalester.edu; eforman@macalester.edu
[edit] Transparency - Publicizing This Process
hmohaupt@macalester.edu; tdenherder-thomas@macalester.edu; awerth@macalester.edu; ssmith@macalester.edu; mbowen@macalester.edu; mkthompson@macalester.edu; cleung@macalester.edu; sschlotterbe@macalester.edu
[edit] Local Food
nsimpkins@macalester.edu; mjones@macalester.edu; tdenherder-thomas@macalester.edu; awerth@macalester.edu; elaporte@macalester.edu; epagel@macalester.edu; lmorel@macalester.edu; egoldsmith@macalester.edu; mlarson@macalester.edu; lvrobson@macalester.edu; lnittle@macalester.edu; jeagles@macalester.edu
[edit] Socially Responsible Community Investing (banking)
mkthompson@macalester.edu; lvrobson@macalester.edu; cleung@macalester.edu; tdenherder-thomas@macalester.edu; epagel@macalester.edu; lmorel@macalester.edu; dbraman@macalester.edu
[edit] Student Masterplan
cleung@macalester.edu; tdenherder-thomas@macalester.edu; ssmith@macalester.edu; jjorgensen@macalester.edu; eforman@macalester.edu
[edit] Meeting with Brian Rosenberg and/or Admin
tdenherder-thomas@macalester.edu; ssmith@macalester.edu; dbraman@macalester.edu; jjorgensen@macalester.edu; eforman@macalester.edu; dboehnke@macalester.edu; sschlotterbe@macalester.edu
[edit] Murals/Art in Dorms etc.
achambers-goldberg@macalester.edu; dangle@macalester.edu; amacmartin@macalester.edu; mlarson@macalester.edu; dbraman@macalester.edu; tdenherder-thomas@macalester.edu; eforman@macalester.edu
[edit] Skillshare/Experimental College
lgruppwilliams@macalester.edu; hmohaupt@macalester.edu; mbjella@macalester.edu; snphillips@macalester.edu; lmorel@macalester.edu; nsimpkins@macalester.edu; mjoner@macalester.edu; jeagles@macalester.edu; tdenherder-thomas@macalester.edu; mlarson@macalester.edu; jnovak@macalester.edu; sschlotterbe@macalester.edu; dangle@macalester.edu; amacmartin@macalester.edu; lvrobson@macalester.edu; epagel@macalester.edu; jtanzman@macalester.edu; mbowen@macalester.edu
[edit] Holding Admin Accountable to "Green" Building
mbjella@macalester.edu; nsimpkins@macalester.edu; aejohnson@macalester.edu; jnovak@macalester.edu; tdenherder-thomas@macalester.edu; awerth@macalester.edu; elaporte@macalester.edu; jeagles@macalester.edu; amacmartin@macalester.edu; epagel@macalester.edu; jtanzman@macalester.edu; cleung@macalester.edu; mkthompson@macalester.edu
[edit] Engaging/ Getting Profs More Involved
tdenherder-thomas@macalester.edu; dbraman@macalester.edu
