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Res Life is tender and knows

no gender. sometimes

After the precipitous reappearance of gendered bathrooms in previously neutral sections of Kirk Hall, students wrote a proposal to Residential Life for all-gender housing. Now, a section of Kirk will be dedicated to intentional community around gender issues.

Mac stands up

Congrats to the organizers of STAND and to Sandy Robson ’08, who mobilized students and administrators around divestment from, policy on and support for victims of the Sudanese genocide. It’s time Macalester ended complicity in genocide in Darfur and actively worked to its end; this year, students turned out in a way never before seen.

Deliver us from email

After campus email server Oracle Collaboration Suite experienced a series of crippling failures, Information and Technology Services accelerated the transition to the superb and supremely modern Google Apps for Education. Finally, an email server that not only isn’t a complete disaster, but has a chat feature.

Addressing climate change, changing the culture

This year saw an amazing proliferation of work for sustainability. There are too many efforts to name here, but the sustainable design of the Institute for Global Citizenship building, moves to protect bicycle security and subsidize bus passes for students, the hiring of a sustainability manager and the swinging success of the Focus the Nation conference certainly come to mind. Realizing stakes and potential available at Mac and in the Twin Cities, student activists have built impressive local, national and global coalition on climate change. Mac Bubble? What Mac Bubble?

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Tenure killer: Qu’est-ce que c’est?

In decisions that confused and outraged nearly all who worked with them, two popular humanities professors – Scott Morgensen in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Diane Brown in French and Francophone Studies – were denied tenure. Perplexingly, both Morgensen and Brown received favorable third-year pre-tenure reviews and have secured book contracts. In short, something went wrong here. On a positive note, President Brian Rosenberg should be applauded for granting Assistant Professor Scott Morgensen’s appeal of the denial decision. Here’s hoping Morgensen is granted a favorable final outcome.

Off the MARC

The new Macalester Athletic and Recreation Center (MARC), slated to open in August, promises plenty of amenities. From state-of-the-art equipment to a gender-neutral changing room, the MARC may well promise everything. Everything, that is, except perhaps staff. At every turn, it seems another major athletic staff member is gone. First, it was football coach Glenn Caruso, who jumped ship – between semesters, no less – to work at the University of St. Thomas. Then, it was Athletic Director Travis Feezell, who was instrumental in planning for the MARC. A new football coach has been hired, but so far, the school has been hustling to find a new AD by MARC’s opening day. As Macalester readies the new face of its commitment to athletics, both the Athletic Department and the student body will have key new faces to adjust to.

The opinions expressed above are those of The Mac Weekly, as determined by the staff. The perspectives are not representative of Macalester College.