Disorientation 2.0
AN ALTERNATIVE STUDENT HANDBOOK
Download the zine in its original form:
CONTENTS
Preface and Introduction
What should Macalester College do for us? What can we do for Macalester?
How can we create a community of care and mutual support at Macalester? How can this community be inclusive of all students, faculty, and staff? We start from an understanding that a lot needs fixing. We hope that this website and zine serve to remind readers about these perennial problems on campus and as a catalyst for where you see change can be made. We all have the ability to envision alternatives on our campus and in our communities — start by thinking big and don’t stop there. Think about what values are important to you and what you believe a caring and supportive educational community should look like. How should student voices be heard and determine the college’s future? What is offered in this zine is an opportunity to reflect on an alternative future, learn about Macalester's history and structure, and engage with activities and resources.
Want to participate? Email disorientationzine@gmail.com
De-mystifying higher ed 101
How to organize a student-led movement
Macalester students are constantly organizing movements. Generation after generation of students have challenged the administration with a variety of dreams and demands, some of which you’ll find documented in this zine. One of our best tools for organizing is knowing how earlier student movements pulled it off, but that history can be hard to find. It isn’t always well documented, and the students who lead them are gone within a few years. Here’s our attempt to fill that gap: a brief overview of what some of Mac’s student movements have accomplished, and how they did it.
Three Case Studies of Student Movements
Equal Education Opportunities (EEO): 1974
The Issue: In 1968, Macalester committed to offering full ride scholarships to 75 students per year, with 60 of those set aside for minority students. Over the following years, Macalester hit financial roadblocks, and the EEO ended up on the chopping block. In 1971, the school started minimizing it, and In 1974, the college announced significant cuts to the program’s budget. This sparked anger among students, particularly those on EEO scholarships.
The student movement: On September 13, 1974, 22 students began occupying the business offices in 77 Macalester. More students picketed outside the building. President James Robinson met with students to start negotiating, and reached an agreement on September 24 — they agreed to a much smaller budget cut and for amnesty to students involved in the protest so they wouldn’t face any punishment. However, two weeks later, the Board of Trustees rejected the agreement, claiming that the president didn’t have authority to make those commitments.
Student movement tactics:
Pressuring those in power: Students sent a letter to a trustee asking for an emergency board meeting on the EEO, and a meeting was organized for the following week. Students also organized an open forum with trustees.
Communication: students organized a press conference; student occupiers did press interviews while leaning out of 77 Mac windows.
Off-campus connections: Students communicated with community organizations and other campuses; legal experts and activists attended the negotiating sessions to aid the students.
Targeted audiences: students launched protests during orientation while new students and parents were on campus.
Confronting faculty: picketing and occupying 77 Mac; bringing protest signs and demanding answers at the president's welcome speech.
Where they succeeded: The students were able to leverage the board and the president into communicating with them, holding negotiating sessions with the president and getting the board to organize an emergency meeting.
Where they did not: While the president met with the students and reached an agreement, the board said soon after that the agreement was invalid. Over the next few years, the EEO diminished and ended due to budget cuts.
Kick Wells Fargo Off Campus (KWOC): 2011-2013
The issue: During the Occupy Wall Street movement, a number of Macalester students learned that Macalester was keeping money in Wells Fargo accounts; the bank was responsible for many foreclosures in the Twin Cities during the recession and housing crisis. Students launched a campaign to demand that Macalester cut ties with the bank.
The student movement: KWOC students hosted letter writing campaigns and informational events in 2012 and 2013 to support their petition to the college asking Mac to cut ties with Wells Fargo. In April 2013, college administrators told students that Mac was rejecting the petition. Student activists responded by occupying Weyerheauser hall, protesting and sleeping in the lobby. The students got a meeting with President Brian Rosenberg after three days, and Rosenberg said he would stick to the college’s earlier decision to reject the students’ demands.
Student movement tactics:
Confronting faculty: Students occupied Weyerheauser to demand a meeting with President Rosenberg.
Gaining visibility: Students early on in the movement — before officially forming KWOC — sent false “eviction notices” to dorm rooms to raise awareness about eviction. This tactic was widely criticized by students, including by those who later joined KWOC, who said the shock tactic was harmful to students who had experiences with eviction.
Off-campus connections: Students partnered with the Minnesota Property Union to host an event; student leaders were active in broader Twin Cities movements to protest foreclosures.
Where they succeeded: KWOC gained the attention of the administration and led the college to conduct an analysis of its use of Wells Fargo, although the college concluded that KWOC’s petition should not be accepted. KWOC’s sit-in earned them a meeting with President Rosenberg.
Where they did not: KWOC struggled to gain broad student support, never growing much beyond the organization’s core group of about 20 people. The group failed to achieve its main stated goal of disconnecting Macalester from Wells Fargo. KWOC was heavily sanctioned after its occupation of Weyerheauser — the group was no longer allowed to meet in designated on-campus meeting spaces, and students were removed from leadership positions on campus such as MCSG. The group dissolved after spring 2013.
Fossil Free Mac (FFM): 2013-2021
The issue: Part of Macalester’s endowment — a fund made up of gifts to the college used for scholarships and other budget purposes — was invested in fossil fuel companies. Macalester students formed Fossil Free Mac in 2013 to demand that Macalester cease those investments (divest) in order to put pressure on fossil fuel companies.
The student movement: Over the course of the movement’s eight year lifespan, students focused their efforts on using official college-sanctioned pathways to petition the Board of Trustees to divest. The movement first petitioned for sweeping divestment from all fossil fuels, which was rejected. Later, students wrote a new petition for divestment from just private partnerships, a specific kind of investment that makes up part of the endowment; the Board accepted a modified version of the proposal in 2019. FFM sent its final petition to the Board in spring 2021 asking the Board to divest from Enbridge, a corporation constructing a tar sands oil pipeline across Indigenous treaty lands in Northern Minnesota; the Board voted in summer 2021 to divest from all fossil fuels.
Student movement tactics:
Pressuring those in power: FFM sent proposals to the Board of Trustees and Social Responsibility Committee
Maintaining momentum: FFM stayed active much longer than most student movements.
Working within the system: FFM made the choice to work within the framework of the college and the board of trustees, bringing their petitions through social responsibility committees and following the school’s pathways for interacting with the board and the administration.
Student support: ffm gained student supporters by holding referendums, inviting students to events and demonstrations
Communication: FFM kept in touch with the greater student body by posting updates on social media and sending open letters and opinion articles to the mac weekly.
Protest: ffm held a sit-in at the 2019 board of trustees vote, and blocked grand ave. in 2021 to pressure the college to respond to its divestment petition.
Where they succeeded: FFM ultimately achieved its goal with the Board’s 2021 vote to divest from fossil fuels. Along the way, they achieved smaller goals, including the Board’s vote to partially accept FFM’s proposal in 2019 and amassing broad support from students and faculty. FFM was also one of Mac’s longest-lasting student movements, staying active for eight years.
Where they did not: FFM saw mixed results with its first and second proposals to the Board — the first never made it past a Social Responsibility Committee, a group made up of students, staff, and faculty that was tasked with reviewing the proposal and deciding whether or not to recommend it to the Board. The second proposal was only partially accepted by the Board. Ultimately, however, FFM was one of the few student movements that achieved the exact goal it stated at its inception: divestment from fossil fuels.
Timeline of Student Movements
1965: EEO implemented
1969: Mac students hold protest against the Vietnam war; faculty vote to cancel class
1970: Students strike in response to the Kent State; Mac shut down a week before the semester ended and cancelled its graduation ceremony
1971: start of cuts to the EEO
1972: Student anti-war protesters blocked Grand Ave. traffic
1974: EEO supporters occupy 77 Mac
1980: students protest ex-director of the CIA William Colby, who came to speak on campus
1982: students sit-in outside the president’s suite, protesting lack of communication and broken promises about Macalester’s commitment to diversity. 45 students got a meeting with administrators about the issues.
1994: students occupy administrative building demanding creation of an ethnic studies program
2000: Sit-in to protest Macalester’s affiliation with the Fair Labor Association; Macalester cut its ties with this group.
2003: Macalester began considering ending its need-blind admissions process, in which admissions didn’t see students’ financial situation before admitting them; students staged protests, public forums, and proposed alternative policies.
2005: Board of Trustees voted to abolish need-blind admissions process. The change took effect in 2006.
2011: Formation of Occupy Macalester, the precursor to Kick Wells Fargo Off Campus (KWOC)
2012: Occupy Macalester rebrands as KWOC
2013: KWOC occupies Weyerhaeuser
2013: Fossil Free Mac (FFM) formed at Macalester to protest Macalester’s investments in fossil fuels.
2015: FFM submits a full divestment proposal to Mac’s social responsibility committee (SRC); the SRC declined to recommend the proposal to the board.
2017: FFM launches new proposal advocating divestment from private partnerships in oil and gas.
2018: SRC recommends FFM’s new proposal to the Board of Trustees.
2019: FFM hosts a sit-in during the Board of Trustees’ vote on the divestment proposal; the board adopts a modified version of the proposal.
2019: FFM disbands
2020: Students disrupt faculty meeting to protest a professor who kept teaching at Mac despite claims of racism and sexism in the classroom.
2020: FFM organizers create a student movement handbook based on the divestment movement.
2021: FFM2.0 resurfaces to protest Macalester’s investment in Enbridge, the company behind the Line 3 pipeline. Students blockaded Grand Ave. asking Macalester to divest from Enbridge.
2021: The Board of Trustees announced that it would divest from all public and private investments in fossil fuels, following FFM2.0’s petition.
2021: students disrupt a meet-and-greet session with senior staff members and hold a sit-in, calling for more support for international and BIPOC students and more transparency from the college.
Racism and Anti-racism Efforts at Macalester
Racism and white supremacy have been embedded in the United States higher education system from its creation. These overlapping issues continue to persist in colleges and universities, with training and support resources falling short in creating lasting change on campuses. This section of the master doc highlights and maintains an updated list of anti-racism efforts led by and resources managed by the institution of Macalester College. The purpose of this segment is to dissect what racism is, how it is perpetuated, explicitly and implicitly, in a higher-education setting, and how it can be dismantled.
Examples of anti-racism initiatives from other institutions also live on in this section of the document as a way to contrast the work being done at Macalester. They can serve as a guide for what Macalester should or should not do. On the same note, this section also includes an ongoing discussion board, open to the Macalester community that explores what anti-racism can and should look like at this institution.
To learn about anti-racism initiatives done and led by the study body at Macalester College refer to the zine.
Unpacking
Racism:
Anti-racism:
Short-term Anti-racism Initiatives:
Long-term Anti-racism Initiatives:
Anti-Racism Resources at/by/from Macalester
Anti-racism Initaitves at Macalester
On June 15th, 2020, on behalf of the institution of Macalester College, President Rivera released a public statement condemning "anti-Black racism, white supremacy, and other forms of bigotry." President Rivera voiced that the right to equality and freedom from discrimination are basic human rights and Macalester condemns state-sanctioned violence against peaceful protesters and journalists. The public statement also mentions Macalester's support of its students, staff, faculty, and alimni engagement in civil disobedience. This public statements asserts that "the senior leadership team has been working on new ways that Macalester can contribute to the creation of a more just and peaceful world. " This link leads to a masterpage, courtesy of the college, with a list of ongoing equity and into-racism initiatives led by Macalester College.
Macalester Bias-Response Team
The Bias Response Team (BRT) is a group of professional staff members who focuses on addressing incidents that undermine the values of inclusivity on Macalester's campus. This link leads to the information page of the BRT. This link leads to the report-form.
Department of Multicultural Life: A People's History of Macalester
The “A People’s History of Macalester” workshop was created by the Department of Multicultural Life with the purpose to provide first-year students a better understanding of Macalester’s values of social justice. This presentation touches on how to create systemic change, disability activism, and much more!
Anti-racism Initiatives by Other Institutions
Test 1
Racism and Anti-racism at Mac: an ongoing discussion
> link to discussion board [sign into macalester email for access]
> Unpacking White Privilege
https://nationalseedproject.org/Key-SEED-Texts/white-privilege-unpacking-the-invisible-knapsack
Campus resources
Campus resources are tools that meet community, academic, and health/wellbeing needs. This section includes resources provided by Macalester as well as an overview of student organizations. The spreadsheet of student organizations categorizes each org based on their roles as community spaces, activist groups, and/or suppliers of resources; it contains Instagram handles and/or contact information for each org. Also supplied in this section is an interactive map from the Twin Cities Mutual Aid Project. A note about campus resources presented in this section: the information contained here is constantly changing and regularly updated. Additionally, students have a variety of lived experiences with each of these resources. It is our responsibility as Mac students to note when resources are helpful and productive and when they are not.
Campus Provided Resources
Department of Multicultural Life - https://www.macalester.edu/multiculturallife/#/0
DML Mission Statement: "The mission of the Department of Multicultural Life (DML) is to provide transformative leadership in creating a culture of diversity and justice that enables all Macalester students to respond to the complexities of the national and larger international community. With other College faculty and staff, the DML staff shares responsibility to maintain a living/learning environment for students that respects multiple perspectives and works towards equity and social justice for everyone."
This website provides information about Macalester’s open pantry, a resource that provides supplemental aid to fulfill the disparity in obtaining certain resources and food. It outlines the new staffing model and partnership with Second Harvest Heartland.
https://www.macalester.edu/campus-operations/home/campuscenter/open-pantry/
This website provides resources and information targeted towards first-year students including videos from major departments and offices on campus (DML, Study Away, Internships). It also provides introductions to important figures from each office/department.
https://www.macalester.edu/admissions/admitted-students/resources-and-support/
This document for diversity and inclusion from the Department of Multicultural Life identifies departments on campus like Title IX, Center for Religious and Spiritual Life, and Employment Services. It also provides a glossary of relevant terms such as dominant narratives, implicit bias, microaggressions, and privilege. Finally, it outlines key concepts like equity v equality, social justice, and pronouns.
This website from the Department of Multicultural life provides contact information for the major offices on campus like the Civic Engagement Center, Disability Services, Career Exploration, and International Student Programs. It includes links for students based on identity including BIPOC, First Generation students, Social Justice, and LGBTQIA individuals. Some of the links (social justice, LGBTQIA, BIPOC programming) are under construction.
https://www.macalester.edu/multiculturallife/resources/
This page from the division of Student Affairs provides more urgent aid resources for things like suicidality, on-campus residential living, personal wellness, and leadership on campus. The subpages direct students to specific departments and mostly include links to other websites and/or contact information for each of the offices.
https://www.macalester.edu/student-affairs/services-and-support/
This WGSS Resources Page provides information on relevant campus organizations including Mac Activists for Choice, Queer Union, Women in Economics, and Feminists in Action. It also outlines celebrations for LGBTQ students including the Lavender reception and graduation.
https://www.macalester.edu/wgss/studentopportunities/resources/oncampusresources/
This document is a resource guide for faculty and staff with information on who to contact when a student needs assistance. Some of the needs listed are mental health concerns, unusual class absences, math/science/writing tutors, and employment. It provides phone numbers, emails, and general contact information for each appropriate office.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E9_u3bzzgwsAlO_ZaOvK-pv5GjxM9rg0IulEaXqmi9k/edit
This website provides resources for faculty and staff to use while advising students. It outlines how to mentor student projects, guide career exploration, and help advisees pick appropriate classes. It also includes some examples of potential advising scenarios and how to appropriately address them.
https://www.macalester.edu/academicprograms/academicadvising/faculty/
This website provides advising guidelines and recommendations for advisors. It includes information on graduation and major requirements and the general process of advising students.
https://www.macalester.edu/academicprograms/academicadvising/faculty/advisingguidelines
This website provides resources for racial justice and it comes from the alumni association. It includes information from on-campus offices as well as resources based on racial identity including for the black community, BIPOC community, and white folks.
https://www.macalester.edu/alumni/mac-together/resources-for-racial-justice/
This website provides information on the regional chapters of alumni organizations from Boston to London and Colorado. Each chapter includes contact information for the region’s chapter contact as well as a link to the group’s Facebook.
https://www.macalester.edu/alumni/groups/
Student Organizations
Envisioning and Brainstorming Alternative Futures
Try for yourself to envision a different Macalester! Using prompts listed, or your own, brainstorm an alternative future. Anything is possible! Think about what you wish you could've experienced here, how you want this community to change, and what you hope for the future.
Possible themes to think about inspired by what's included in this project: Dismantling White Supremacy, Student Life, Academics, Mental Health, Faculty and Administration Relations, and more! Examples could include: faculty tenure reform, unionizing and labor equity in student employment, redesigning the Board of Trustees and representation, imagining what health and wellbeing really means, and commitment from senior leadership at the college to prioritize student voices.
Resources
Experimental Community Education of the Twin Cities
Land Acknowledgment information