This Tuesday March 10th, I submitted a motion to MCSG to form a Student Assembly to discuss or take action on income inequality among Macalester’s staff. It was defeated. While this does not mean there cannot be any form of Student Assembly regarding this issue (if organizers receive the signatures they need MCSG can’t stop it), it offers us an opportunity to introduce an expanded role for MCSG.

This semester MCSG has managed to cohere well enough to hold difficult conversations and pursue them to a fitting end. We have ended every meeting (with the exception of this week’s) 20 or more minutes early. We have begun using this extra time to open up conversations about staplers, Kagin dances, sexual assault and now income inequality. This week marks a departure from previous conversations. This discussion was structured into the agenda, and we invited the students who have been tabling to talk about their plans for the Student Assembly and the referendum/bill the Student Assembly might consider.

Future conversations about important issues that do not directly pertain to MCSG’s workings can now be included and given their due. MCSG can become the space where, whether or not it considers holding an official Student Assembly or forum, students bring their concerns and plans for improving the community. We are a space that lends legitimacy and the possibility of meaningful action. We can easily organize and create more spaces to continue discourse.

This is my vision of how MCSG can develop to better serve the student body. I include it in The Mac Weekly in large part to encourage my fellow students to take the initiative to reach out to their class representatives, to their MCSG executives, and to other interested parties to bring important discussions to MCSG. Thank you for reading, and thank you for your activism and dynamism.