As the current Executive Board, we wanted to articulate why we think someone should run for our positions and why MCSG matters to us.

Being on the Executive Board is rewarding for many reasons, such as leading MCSG and its committees, getting to know more people on this campus and being able to spearhead our own initiatives. By being on MCSG, we have been able to present problems to the administration and help create real solutions. This year, Merrit and Remy have lobbied for the administration to make Macalester a test-optional campus, and President Rosenberg has committed to making a decision on the subject by the time we graduate. Sydney streamlined funding processes for the Mac Weekly and WMCN and is working with religious orgs to make sure that budgets for religious practice are allocated fairly. Together we have lead our committees and MCSG in work ranging from programming, to surveying the student body (our survey closes February 3, please take it!), expanding and improving access to free textbooks, and working one-on-one with countless orgs and students. However, the most remarkable part of our positions is the ability we have to advocate for student voices with the administration, the board, faculty and staff.

As an outsider looking in, the appeal of MCSG is not always easy to understand. However, to us, MCSG has been an incredible opportunity to grow and learn, a way to take actionable steps towards changing Macalester for the better, and a community that we love and rely on. As students, it is easy to feel like the administration is working against us and that they do not hear the voices of students on issues that matter to us. However, after working with them one-on-one, we see that is far from true. Our ideas have been made stronger and more thoughtful by working with staff and administrators, who are some of the fiercest advocates for student rights that we know at Macalester. If you have something you are passionate about, if you feel that Macalester has room to grow and that you can help bring that growth about, we encourage you to run for an Executive position and use the resources of our offices to change Macalester.

We realize MCSG is far from perfect. We ourselves struggle with the fact that our body is not representative of the racial/gender/religious/political and other identities Macalester students hold; we struggle with the disconnect between MCSG and the student body and with our own inability to accomplish all the things we want to in these positions. Macalester and MCSG will only get better if those of you who are dissatisfied step forward and take on leadership positions to address Macalester’s weaknesses and advocate for the things you can not imagine Macalester without.

We encourage all of you, and especially those of you who feel their voice has not been heard by MCSG, by the administration and by this college, to run and create change. Elections for the 2017–2018 MCSG Executive Board are happening on February 13 and 14, the deadline to file for candidacy is midnight on February 5. If you have any questions about running for office, please reach out to any of us.

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