good afternoon Joi -- it is with great interest and continued concern that i read Jessica Masterson's news brief in the Mac Weekly (alums, it's pasted below). having just received a request from the younger sibling of a good friend who is considering Mac, i am eager to hear about the Multicultural Advisory Board's recommendations & report about improving Macalester's mediocre recruitment and retention of students of color.
can you give me and these other alumni an update about student life, campus life, specifically as it relates to students of color (who are both from the U.S. and international students)? i would like to be able to encourage this student of color (god knows Mac needs him), but before doing so i would like to hear some of your thoughts. eager to hear, chad. p.s. my fellow alumni, in addition to the news brief below out of the Mac Weekly (www.themacweekly.com), it looks like the headliner is about rampant cheating on campus. *** MAB report completed, to be reviewed by Board of Trustees The Multicultural Advisory Board recently completed a report detailing strategies to recruit and retain students of color that they will soon present to President Rosenberg and the Board of Trustees. According to MAB co-chair and Dean of Multicultural Life Joi Lewis, the purpose of the report, which was assigned to the board last May by President Rosenberg, was to �define success for multicultural recruitment and retention at Macalester and to propose strategies necessary for achieving that success.� The Board will review the document in mid-May and plans to make recommendations and draft a course of action. Lewis noted that although multicultural recruitment includes students of various backgrounds and not specifically students of color, those students are currently most underrepresented on campus and thus served as the focal point for the report. �What we have discovered is that we are challenged in the area of U.S. students of color,� said Lewis. �The part of multiculturalism that we�re concentrating on is looking at students of color and multiracial students.� In compiling a large amount of data from years past, Lewis said the committee, which biology professor Jan Serie also chairs, looked to students, alumni, members of the local community, as well as peer institutions to gain an idea of what kinds of changes would be most applicable to the college. In reviewing peer institutions, the board considered such figures as geography, staffing, facilities, and the price per student. The board also reviewed Macalester data on what Lewis refers to as the student experience, which includes the numbers of students, both of color and not, who receive Latin honors, attend graduate school, and study abroad. �What we found is that who we really want to be most like is Macalester,� Lewis said, noting that if the college were to live up to its mission statement, there would be little need for improvements. �We learned that there are a lot of great things that are happening [on campus],� Lewis said. The report itself will be released to the public after the Board of Trustees meeting May 13. -Brief written by Contributing Writer Jessica Masterson. ****************** "The annual cost of all 11 UN peacekeeping operations today is less than [the United States] spends in a month in Iraq." The Economist. March 5th-11th, 2005. pg. 46. If you truly want to be the unilateral administration then you must bear the burden of your unilateralism. naomi klein. interviewed by lakshmi chaudhry. jan 27, 2005. justice, rather than benevolence. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Programming mailing list [email protected] http://adelantemac.org/mailman/listinfo/programming_adelantemac.org
