By Alison Tray

With campaigning in full swing, perhaps instead of writing out an agenda, first, I could just tell you more about who I am. I’m an Anthropology major, Biology minor, and one of those many pre-meds out there. I’m also a mentor through the Department of Multicultural Life, a clinical research intern at Hennepin County Medical Center, and a volunteer at Children’s Hospital.Currently a junior here at Macalester, I’ve spent two years in Student government, both as a sophomore representative and the Academic Affairs Commission Chair. As the Chair, I’ve worked with my commission to help students advocate for a Statistics Major, publicize Educator of the Year, pass a textbook proposal to allow students to charge their textbooks to their student accounts via their student ID, and have held two hot cocoa events to publicize MacBookSwap and Educator of the Year.

Brian Rosenberg has also read a letter to the faculty that was created by our commission with 286 student body signatures. This letter asked faculty to be aware of the rising costs of textbooks in their textbook decision-making processes. As chair, I’ve also been a student representative on the Academic Affairs Trustee Committee, and a student representative on the Athletics Advisory Board (who are creating a solidified missed absence policy). I’m also currently helping a fellow student work on a textbook scholarship fund to assist students of most need, and moreover, this is something I’d like to continue next year.

The MCSG president is first and foremost a facilitator, but as such I’d like to increase interdepartmental and inter-student collaboration with MCSG. I’d like to continue to work with students and student organizations on campus to advocate and communicate student concerns. I’d like to hold events to increase the visibility and accessibility of our execs and moreover, I’d like to play a role in making our campus more environmentally friendly and Institute for Global Citizenship-aware. Furthermore, I’d like to look into differing methods of bringing more forms of interactive art to campus.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to say, as your MCSG president, I’ll make you all a promise (here and now as a candidate) to continue to deliver you results.

And lastly, I just wanted to thank everyone including the Mac Weekly for printing up these awesome excerpts and I’d encourage everyone to vote April 9!

Contact Alison Tray ’09, candidate for Macalester College Student Government President, at [email protected].