By Mac Weekly Staff

Your Vote Actually Does Count
To the Editors:
Every year the Faculty Personnel Committee (FPC) evaluates the work of faculty members who are undergoing their pre-tenure, tenure, or promotion (to full professor) review. The FPC is an 8-member committee, made up of 6 elected faculty members, the provost, and the president. FPC members reflect on the candidate’s scholarly work, their teaching in and outside of the classroom, and their service to their professional community as well as to the Macalester community.

Candidates up for review create a file for the FPC members to read, and it is this file upon which the FPC bases its decision of whether or not the candidate has successfully passed their review. Included in each file are letters from faculty at other institutions, from Macalester faculty and staff, and from students. FPC members take the student letters very seriously.

During the coming months, you may be asked to write one of these letters. With this letter I urge you to respond to these requests. Take the time to do a thoughtful job, and know that your input is critical to us in our decision-making process. Thanks to all of you who have helped in the past, and to those of you who will help this year.

Sincerely,
Karen Saxe
Chair, Faculty Personnel Committee

Are We in the Ivory League Yet?
To the Editors:
In last week’s article “New admission materials aim to distinguish Mac from the crowd”, my esteemed colleague, Jamie Moore, was quoted, “I’m a bit sick of going through the ‘It’s a really good school, really, it is’ speech.” I sympathize utterly with him/her. It’s a rough go of it when people don’t understand how atrociously intelligent I am.
It is of the utmost importance to myself that ordinary citizens are awestruck by my brilliance when I relate to them the title of the prestigious institution at which I reside. One fortnight ago Elias Tezapsidis articulated the struggles of being waitlisted at Princeton and Harvard, two academies that presented me with comparable frustrations. However, it is comforting to know that I am not walking alone on the path of rejection.

Perhaps together, we Ivy League rejects can shape Macalester into an institution that exudes a more sophisticated, more elite aura. I had hoped to proudly don the Sigma Alpha Phi Holy-Hell-I’m-Hot-Shit sweatshirt, and display the Yale alumni sticker on the tinted rear window of my BMW some day.
It is not as though the Macalester tradition is not up to par-essentially, for all intents and purposes, Macalester rocks. Macalester is developing slowly but surely; we are working on our image, catering to public opinion, and finally putting athletics before academics. It’s not that I only care about status, but, you know what I mean … right?
Cheers,
Jeffrey D. Herbst I ’07 & Tracey R. Howell XI ’07

Toward a waste-free campus
To the Editors:
Macalester College is on its way to being a waste-free campus! Thanks to Macalester faculty, staff, and students, we now have a waste contract as of last April with Eureka Recycling. This local nonprofit is a national leader in waste reduction. They provide award-winning services, programs, education, and advocacy to Saint Paul and other communities in the metro area. Driven by its mission to demonstrate that waste is preventable, not inevitable, Eureka Recycling is working with Macalester to identify and implement changes that are sustainable.

Currently, a team of Macalester representatives and Eureka staff is gathering data about Macalester’s creation of waste. Then we will create a comprehensive plan of action necessary to reach our goal of a waste-free campus!
As part of its partnership with Mac, Eureka Recycling is offering the entire college community the opportunity to buy 100% postconsumer recycled printer paper! This paper is made entirely out of paper from someone’s recycling bin, so producing it uses fewer resources and creates less pollution than producing paper made from trees. Eureka Recycling is able to offer Macalester paper by the ream (500 sheets) for $4.00 each because they place a bulk order to get a discount from the supplier and then pass the savings on to you. To order, simply email [email protected] indicating the number of reams you want or call Ellen at (651) 222-7678. Orders need to be placed by Thursday, October 5th and pickup of the paper will occur at the end of October on campus.

Sarah Stephens ’07