The Student News Site of Macalester College

The Mac Weekly

The Student News Site of Macalester College

The Mac Weekly

The Student News Site of Macalester College

The Mac Weekly

Staff Editorial

By Mac Weekly Staff

Seeing as this is the last issue we’ll be putting out before Thanksgiving, we figured we’d try to be a little bit less of a downer this week. In honor of the coming holiday, we’ve compiled in no particular order a list of ten things we’re thankful for—or at least optimistic about—here at Macalester. Our new windmill. Within a few years, if all goes according to plan, 40% of the electricity our campus consumes will be produced by our very own pollution-free windmill somewhere in southwestern Minnesota.
Our new green roofs. Apparently the greening of the Doty-Turck fishbowl’s roof was only the beginning. Kagin’s green roof is already installed, and plans and proposals for more around campus are currently in the works. Looks like there’s that much less dirty runoff water in our future.

The eco-friendly “green house” in the works. And we thought the Veggie Co-Op was the only eco-friendly living option on campus (unless you count Badger’s sleeping bag). Now a few of us, at least, can finally practice what we preach.

The green cities we live in. Might as well milk the green theme for all it’s worth: both Minneapolis and St. Paul were recently ranked among the 20 “greenest” cities in the country, probably owing to our heavier-than-usual bike traffic and relatively large amount of inner-city green space. In any event, we can lay claim to something most of the rest of the country can’t: we actually meet the Kyoto Protocol’s standards for environmental sustainability.

Our very own rent-free co-op? We’ve heard through the grapevine that some Mac students are applying for a grant to buy a house somewhere in the neighborhood for some lucky upperclassmen to live rent-free. Here’s to hoping.

The World Press Institute. This is one Macalester-based “institute” that actually exists (and works)—the WPI pays for foreign journalists to come to the U.S. and learn about how their trade works in this country. This year’s participants came and spoke at Mac last week—now you know for next year.

Heat in the dorms. Well, duh. Repairmen have been sweeping through the dorms during the past week to fix problematic radiators in individual rooms: facilities Management is on top of things.

Heat at light rail stations. Mac students looking to get off-campus will inevitably ride the light rail at some point, and while the trains come often enough it’s nice to know that with winter coming they can expect each station’s shelters to be fully heated.

Snowballs. We’ve already heard plenty of complaints about the weather from first-years from the Sunbelt who didn’t realize just how cold it gets here. It’s going to get worse, of course, but the prospect of having a limitless supply of projectile-producing material should cheer us up a little.

New beginnings. With the first six years of Bush’s presidency turning out to be just slightly less nightmarish than the pessimists predicted, we might as well be thankful for any sign, no matter how small, from the electorate that they’re ready for a change.

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