‘We don’t need no sinks’

The Mac Weekly interviewed Dupre 5 RAs Mac McCreary ‘12 and Sarah Mueller '12 on Dupes pride.

TMW: What are your majors? How are your capstones shaping up?

Sarah: I'm an English major with a Literature emphasis, and Art History and WGSS minors. I'm doing my capstone next semester so I'm just not thinking about it.

Mac: I'm a Chemistry major and Biology minor. Chemistry has a class that's capstone in everything but name, and I've just been trying to keep my head above water in that. You also have to do a presentation in seminar, but I'm going to do that next semester as late as possible because I have to figure out what I'm going to do in that. Probably something about making zooplankton think they're going to find a mate, and really it's just a trick.

Sarah: That sounds mean.

You've both been RAs on Dupre 5 for the last three years, which, according to my very reliable sources, means that 1/10 current Macalester students have had you as RAs. Were you aware of this statistic?

Mac: It's unreal; there are times when I've been in the Leonard Center working out and every single person there had lived on Dupre 5. Dupre 5 is an institution.

The Penthouse?

Mac: That's our name this year. There have been times when I thought it should be ranch-themed, so that when I see my residents I can be like, "See you back at the Ranch." That's never really happened.

Sarah: You can just say that.

Did you live on Dupre 5 freshman year?

Mac: I was down on Dupre 3, but I had a lot of friends up here on Dupre 5 so I was up here quite a bit.

Sarah: I was on Turck 1 my freshman year. Mac wins the prize for living all four years in Dupre. We don't need no sinks!

Mac: Most people think that Sarah and I have been friends forever and ask us how we arranged to be on the same floor as RAs, but Sarah and I didn't really know each other until we got up here.

Sarah: ..we clicked.

What sort of legacy do you hope to leave with your residents?

Sarah: I think that we do a pretty good job of breaking them down.

Mac: Over the summer we had high hopes of starting a cult.

Sarah: That's a lot of effort.

I think we do a good job of acclimating them to Macalester and getting them ready for the weirdness. We're also real with them because there's a lot of bulls**t Macalester throws at you like "global citizenship" and "social justice," not that those aren't good things in moderation, but you have to have a sense of humor about things like that.

Mac: A big thing for me is getting them away from their parents and encouraging them to take classes that interest them even if their parents don't approve.

Sarah: We also want to open their minds to new ideas.

Mac: We definitely have no issues talking about sex.

Sarah: My door decorations this year are about sexual fetishes, and Mac's are pictures of prisoners and old people.

What have your other door decoration themes been over the years?

Mac: I got so into door my decorations the first semester. I spent the entire summer with a mythical creature coloring book I had, colored them all by hand and put those up so that everyone had their own mythical creature. That spring of junior year we did my favorite theme by far.

Sarah: It took us more than 8 hours to make them.

Mac: Somehow mustaches came up, and then baby animals and macaroni art. So I decided to find famous people with mustaches. We had Wilford Brimley, Clint Eastwood, I think we gave Oprah a mustache, Saddam; a Walrus was my favorite, Geraldo Rivera, the Monopoly guy, just classic mustaches. Then with an exacto knife I cut out all the mustaches and gave them to Sarah. In the space where the mustache was, I filled that in my macaroni noodles. Then Sarah put the mustaches onto picture of baby animals.

Sarah: And then we put ridiculous macaroni art around the edges with sparkly poof balls, sequins and googly eyes.

Second semester, I did cult classic movies. Some of my residents kept them and still have them on their doors. The next year I did Adventure Time. It's a weird cartoon that I love. And this year I did sexual fetishes, which sort of goes along with the building theme this year.