This week’s MCSG began with a moment of silence to honor and remember Conor Tomlin ’21, who died unexpectedly last week.

“Please know that we, as a group, are here to support each other,” MCSG President Blair Cha ’20 said.

Following the moment of silence, the Legislative Board (LB) heard updates from the Executive Board —  along with an overview of the special elections timeline. Financial Affairs Committee (FAC) Chair Ayushi Modi ’21 discussed the semester’s operating fund, while Student Services and Relations Committee (SSRC) Chair Natalie Luo ’20 announced events for homelessness and food insecurity awareness week, which ends Nov. 24, including a canned food drive.

After these updates, the LB proceeded to vote on charters for two new student organizations and re-charter a student organization whose charter proposals they had reviewed the previous week.

Furia Latina, a Latin dance group, Art Alliance, which provides art supplies and hosts art workshops on campus, and Macalester College Girls Who Code College Loop (MacCL), a group providing support for women in computer science, were all granted charters by the LB.

The LB then voted unanimously to confirm Alex Ang ’22 as interim Program Board (PB) Chair. Ang had been unanimously nominated for the position by PB.

Next on the LB’s agenda was a discussion of the chartering process and the treatment of guests more generally at MCSG meetings, the result of a motion by Diversity and Inclusion Officer Robert Green ’23.

“The point at which I realized that we have the issues that [Green referenced] was specifically when Anthony [Palma ’22] came in with Mac Republicans,” Vice President and SSRC Chair Fatiya Kedir ’21 said. “I thought that was a really important experience for all of us, because now I think we all understand the charter process a lot more.

“I think it’s really important to make sure we’re not alienating people and not making people feel like we’re MCSG so we’re forcing what presence should be on campus or not,” she continued.

“We need to show our MCSG guests respect,” SSRC member Shreya Nagdev ’22 said. “We talk down to them when we ask them questions… it’s just not okay. [We need to] just take a little more time to think before we talk.”

The LB resolved to consider changes that would implement a more supportive charter process, including setting the meeting agenda in a way that is respectful of the time of student orgs.

The LB then heard from FAC member and Election Procedures Committee member Jason Kohn ’20 on revisions to the election code concerning its definition of “student” and “class representative,” which Kohn felt were not specific enough.

The LB voted to pass Kohn’s edits, changing the definition of “student” to only degree-seeking and international exchange students, and changing the definition of “class representative” to ensure students represent their entering class rather than the class associated with their number of credits. The LB also voted to implement a four-day voting period.

Finally, the LB split into groups to review a document outlining its bylaws. The review was not completed by the end of the meeting and the LB resolved to address it again at a later date.

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