2008 Woodie Awards
Candidates seek to spark further interest in MCSG
As Thursday's student government elections approach, candidates will focus on how MCSG can better respond to student concerns…
By: Taylor Uggla, Contributing Writer
Issue date: 3/31/06 Section: News
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As Thursday's student government elections approach, candidates will focus on how MCSG can better respond to student concerns. Results will show whether student involvement will increase or remain stagnant.
This year's presidential candidates, Jess Hasken '07, Natalia Espejo '07, David Boehnke '07, and Kyle Wortman '09, are trying to bring students closer to MCSG after a tough year. The additional allocations fund was nearly emptied early in the year and multiple people resigned, including the chair of the Financial Affairs Commission and several Legislative Body representatives. The Legislative Body has had at least one vacant seat for most of this academic year.
Candidates' stated issues of interest are varied, ranging from multiculturalism and diversity on campus, residential life responsibilities, and plans for building renovations for the athletic facility and the Fine Arts complex.
Hasken stated that one of her goals for next year would be to implement more programs that affect everyone on campus, not just a select group of people. In her opinion, the Newspaper Readership Program, which supplies the New York Times and other newspapers to the student body for free, has been one of MCSG's most successful accomplishments. “I think it's important to reach everyone,” she said. “I want to create several more programs like this.”
In terms of increasing student involvement, Hasken believes that word of mouth is the best way to engage people. “There are certain groups of students who are involved in several activities, and other students who you never see outside of class,” she said. “I think that this is a perpetual problem at Macalester, and through talking to people, change is possible.”
All candidates acknowledged a problematic gap between students and representatives, and expressed desires to transform MCSG into a program that is more easily accessible to people not formally involved. Boehnke proposes a training program that if elected, he would work to administer. The program would focus on first-years, but would still be available to all interested students, and would simply exist to help people learn about Macalester politics and how the system works. Participants would be directly informed of ongoing campaigns and committees in order to receive information more easily. Boehnke also aims to invest in more long-term planning in order to distribute MCSG plans earlier, thus increasing student awareness.
This year's presidential candidates, Jess Hasken '07, Natalia Espejo '07, David Boehnke '07, and Kyle Wortman '09, are trying to bring students closer to MCSG after a tough year. The additional allocations fund was nearly emptied early in the year and multiple people resigned, including the chair of the Financial Affairs Commission and several Legislative Body representatives. The Legislative Body has had at least one vacant seat for most of this academic year.
Candidates' stated issues of interest are varied, ranging from multiculturalism and diversity on campus, residential life responsibilities, and plans for building renovations for the athletic facility and the Fine Arts complex.
Hasken stated that one of her goals for next year would be to implement more programs that affect everyone on campus, not just a select group of people. In her opinion, the Newspaper Readership Program, which supplies the New York Times and other newspapers to the student body for free, has been one of MCSG's most successful accomplishments. “I think it's important to reach everyone,” she said. “I want to create several more programs like this.”
In terms of increasing student involvement, Hasken believes that word of mouth is the best way to engage people. “There are certain groups of students who are involved in several activities, and other students who you never see outside of class,” she said. “I think that this is a perpetual problem at Macalester, and through talking to people, change is possible.”
All candidates acknowledged a problematic gap between students and representatives, and expressed desires to transform MCSG into a program that is more easily accessible to people not formally involved. Boehnke proposes a training program that if elected, he would work to administer. The program would focus on first-years, but would still be available to all interested students, and would simply exist to help people learn about Macalester politics and how the system works. Participants would be directly informed of ongoing campaigns and committees in order to receive information more easily. Boehnke also aims to invest in more long-term planning in order to distribute MCSG plans earlier, thus increasing student awareness.
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