The fall 2020 semester’s first MCSG Legislative Board (LB) meeting took place via Zoom on Sept. 8.

Several positions on the MCSG executive board and LB are still unfilled after last April’s election. Those include three senior representative positions, two junior representative positions, the sustainability chair position and the vice presidency/Student Services and Relations Committee chair. 

No candidates filed for the remaining senior and junior class representative positions or the sustainability officer position last semester. No write-in candidates secured the 15 percent of votes needed to win, either.

Robert Green, who won the vice presidential election last March, left the school at the end of the spring semester.

MCSG also does not currently have a chief of staff, which is a student employment position.

MCSG President Fatiya Kedir ’21 then delivered an opening address on her goals as president this semester. She highlighted three values she hopes to uphold as president — accessibility, opportunity and accountability — and discussed MCSG’s role within the ongoing movement for Black lives in the U.S.

“Macalester is not a bubble,” Kedir said. “Issues in the world definitely affect us and can impact our community as well. George Floyd was murdered 12 minutes away from Macalester’s campus.”

She also discussed the challenges MCSG faces this semester with much of Macalester programming happening exclusively online in the fall.

“It’s really, really hard to create a [virtual] community, but I do think it is one of our most important responsibilities,” Kedir said.

Next, Kedir proposed an amendment to the election code to change the filing period for open positions from two weeks to one week. Kedir explained that she and other executive board members want to shorten the filing period for MCSG positions in order to fill the many vacancies as soon as possible.

The upcoming election will fill the vice presidency, the sustainability officer position, three senior representative positions and two junior representative positions.

Kedir’s proposed amendment passed unanimously. 

The election code amendment means that the filing period for MCSG candidacy will last from Sept. 9 at 8 a.m. to Sept. 16 at the end of the day. Candidates will have one week to campaign, from Sept.r 19 to Sept. 26, before the voting begins the following day and runs until Sept. 30.

Next, Kedir nominated Shreya Nagdev ’22 to be interim vice president in the weeks leading up to the election. Nagdev served as a sophomore class representative last semester. The LB approved Kedir’s nomination unanimously.

Members of the LB then discussed their personal goals for MCSG this year and adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Finally, committee chairs gave updates on their respective committees.

Hannah Gilbert ’21, Financial Affairs Committee chair, discussed student organization budgets which are still in question. The $130 student activity fee was refunded to students this year in light of the pandemic and partially remote semester. Student organization budgets will therefore rely on the rollover budget from last year.

Kedir ended the meeting by calling upon LB members to discuss one thing they are grateful for.

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