This week’s MCSG meeting commenced with a discussion about the mission of MCSG and how representatives should respond to incidents of vandalism and hate speech on Macalester’s campus.

Initially, the Legislative Body (LB) was divided by class year before coming back together to discuss their ideas.

MCSG President Suveer Daswani ’18 presented the idea of a Mac Loves campaign, that would be focused on spreading positivity on campus.

After that Ximena Silva-Avila ’20 – a representative from Adelante! – spoke about MCSG’s obligation to make more effort to personally respond to hate on campus and support students who are directly affected.

The LB then discussed how it could combat that perception – agreeing that more could be done to respond and reach out, but not committing to a specific answer.

Pressed for time, further discussion was tabled until after the conclusion of the general meeting.

Next, guest speaker Mara Steinitz ’18 spoke about a campus-wide “walk-in” designed to bring attention to hate at Macalester and give an opportunity for people to speak out about their own personal experiences. The event is scheduled for Nov. 16 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center.

After a short break, the Juggler’s League answered final questions from the body before the board unanimously voted to make it an official organization.

Following this, there was a presentation about a movement to make the Dean’s List a private, rather than a public, resource on Macalester’s website in order to lower academic stress and protect confidentiality.

There was then a brief discussion afterwards about making representatives available at class nights to answer any questions and foster conversation.

The meeting concluded with several brief updates and reminders for the body.

A full transcript of the meeting is available on MCSG’s website.