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11/02/2025

‘The quad’ is a staple of the college experience, front and center on almost every campus. The Great Lawn, for instance, serves as common ground for students, faculty and staff to gather as one Macalester community. Our community’s attention has been especially focused on this space following the recent felling of the large silver maple tree central to the Lawn. Facilities shared in a recent Mac Daily that they and Macalester’s arborist agreed that “despite numerous treatments and regular pruning,” the maple “was old and not thriving anymore, and […] became a safety concern.”

As an environmentally-conscious student, an environmental studies major and an avid enthusiast for wilderness and getting outdoors, the remaining stump of the silver maple inspires other ideas of great change for our campus greenspace. While a de facto symbol of community at Mac, The Great Lawn also represents something more sinister that Macalester can, and should, bring an end to: a system of landscaping at odds with Macalester’s values, reliant on anti-environmental practices and connected to a history of oppression.

https://themacweekly.com/83669/opinion/let-it-grow-a-call-to-rewild-the-great-lawn/

11/02/2025

It was meant to be a simple Monday night concert: arrive a bit after the doors opened at 7, listen to the opener at 8, watch the main set at 9 and be home by 11.

Walking out of that venue purely exhausted at midnight after about 3 hours of pure prog rock still felt pretty good, though.

On Jan. 27, Geordie Greep performed at the First Avenue Mainroom in Minneapolis, touring in support of his latest album, “The New Sound,” released in October. Greep is mostly known as the former frontman of the English art-rock-adjacent band Black Midi, ramping up an impressive cult following with only three albums between 2019-2022 before their breakup in August 2024.

https://themacweekly.com/83673/arts/im-a-greep-im-a-weirdo-geordie-greep-grooves-in-minneapolis/

Between love triangles, mysterious disappearances and aiding foreign governments, you’d think you were watching a James ...
11/02/2025

Between love triangles, mysterious disappearances and aiding foreign governments, you’d think you were watching a James Bond movie. The Coen Brothers’ 2008 film “Burn After Reading” crafts a picture of life in Washington, D.C. that is more farce than force. In the film, a cast of normal, middle-aged people endure a series of hilarious bad decisions and coincidences that leave the viewer grasping for a takeaway. But that is the film’s message: don’t force life, let it happen.

The plot centers around a group of characters, each representing a different archetype of the lonely adult who are brought together by chance but whose fates are intertwined.

Between love triangles, mysterious disappearances and aiding foreign governments, you’d think you were watching a James Bond movie. The Coen Brothers’ 2008 film “Burn After Reading” crafts a picture of life in Washington, D.C. that is more farce than force. In the film, a cast of normal, mid...

11/02/2025

Reminiscent of “Black Mirror” and aligning itself as a sinister version of “The Office,” “Severance” explores what would happen if we could fast-forward between the hours of nine to five. Created by Dan Erickson and directed largely by Ben Stiller, Apple TV’s psychological thriller confronts the confines of capitalism and the complexity of human relationships through parallel narratives — the life of the worker and the life of the person who exists outside of the office. The first episode of the second season premiered on Jan. 17 to the bated breath of die-hard fans, nearly three years after the premiere of season one. But the darker, twisted resurrection of the series has so far proved more than worth the wait.

“Severance” follows Mark (Adam Scott), an employee at the seemingly altruistic biotech company Lumon, who undergoes a procedure to separate his home and work life, leading him to work on the severed floor of the corporate headquarters. The first season introduced viewers to a star-studded cast of characters including Helly (Britt Lower), Irving (John Turrtorro), Dylan (Zach Cherry) and Burt (Christopher Walken), who brought with them many more questions than answers. We learn that Mark’s team works on macro-data refinement, but what does the clicking of numbers on an outdated desktop really do? Do the “severed” employees, known as “innies,” have any control over their work lives? What are the true motivations of those high up at Lumon?

https://themacweekly.com/83682/arts/long-awaited-second-season-of-severance-premieres-in-full-force/

11/02/2025

When Macalester’s men’s and women’s tennis teams face Gustavus Adolphus College this season, Interim Head Coach Chase Johnson will be itching for a win.

For much of his tennis career, Johnson would have said the opposite. He earned All-American honors as a standout on Gustavus’ nationally ranked team as a student, with an overall record of 78-26 in singles and 86-23 in doubles. He went on to help coach the team after he graduated and earned Intercollegiate Tennis Association Central Region Assistant Coach of the Year in 2022. Still, he isn’t worried about split loyalties.

https://themacweekly.com/83662/sports/tennis-welcomes-interim-head-coach/

11/02/2025

On Saturday, Feb. 1, Macalester’s men’s basketball team won a matchup against the College of Saint Scholastica 79-76. Noah Shannon ’26, on the bench due to injury, sported a bejeweled tiger chain that stole some of the Scots’ on-court show.

As he explained: “[Head Coach] Abe [Woldeslassie ’08] said it was a big game today and to show up like we’re professionals, so we showed up like we’re in the NBA … This is actually JP [Kerrigan ’28]’s necklace. He gave it to me, and I said: ‘Y’know what? I’m gonna wear it like a champ!’ … I think we’re all tigers on the court.”

https://themacweekly.com/83685/sports/scots-style/

11/02/2025

It started with a Mary Daley ’27 three-pointer off the assist from Sydnee Smith ’27. A few possessions later, Daley hit a jumper. And then a layup. Just like that, in under four minutes, the Scots had pulled off a 12-2 run to open the fourth quarter against St. Catherine University on Wednesday, Feb. 5.

The Scots came away from that match with a 64-57 win to keep their playoff hopes alive in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC). That 12-2 run in the fourth quarter represents a season-long trend for the Scots. That late-third, early-fourth stretch has been the Scots’ sweet spot. Yet even Head Coach Katie Kollar doesn’t have an explanation for these runs.

https://themacweekly.com/83688/home/womens-basketball-sophomore-scots-lead-onslaughts/

The Fall 2024 Literary Publishing class celebrated the release of “The Orchard,” the course’s third anthology at the Eng...
11/02/2025

The Fall 2024 Literary Publishing class celebrated the release of “The Orchard,” the course’s third anthology at the English department coffee house on Feb. 5, highlighting the power of real-world learning applications within the humanities field and celebrating the creative skills of the class’s contributors and editors. English professor Steve Woodward, who has taught the class since 2019, reflected on the experience of watching his students’ vision come to life.

“In these pages, you’ll find engagements with the nature of reality, sharp-elbowed sportswriting, poetic musings on friends and natural disasters and stories that traverse the limits of form,” Woodward wrote in the introduction to ‘The Orchard.’ “In all of them, you’ll find roving curiosity, questing intelligence, and keen observations. These are writers who have something to say and are ready to make their mark on the world.”

The Fall 2024 Literary Publishing class celebrated the release of “The Orchard,” the course’s third anthology at the English department coffee house on Feb. 5, highlighting the power of real-world learning applications within the humanities field and celebrating the creative skills of the clas...

11/02/2025

Sorrel Virginia Hester never expected that they would become a college chaplain. They definitely did not anticipate that, as the assistant chaplain of Christian life at Macalester College, they would lead a group with one of the more intriguing names a reader of the Mac Daily could see in their inbox last semester — “Muse and Munch.”

What started as a text study over the lunch period during Lent, a religious pre-Easter period, in the spring semester of 2024 became a space for all of the Macalester community to discuss concepts relating to collective liberation and “what Christian traditions teach us about it,” as stated on Macalester’s website.

https://themacweekly.com/83697/features/muse-and-munch-the-mac-dailys-greatest-alliterative-mystery/

11/02/2025

On Thursday, Jan. 30, Macalester College Student Government (MCSG) met in the Weyerhaeuser Boardroom to hear a presentation from Associate Director of Health Promotion Rachel Banen ’16. Their agenda also featured multiple items relating to the Financial Affairs Committee (FAC), and remarks from International Student Liaison Laurice Jimu ’27 on recent executive orders from the Trump administration that threaten the status of international and undocumented students in the United States.

Banen began her presentation by defining the meaning and purpose of health promotion as a series of measures intended to prevent injury or illness, saying: “We absolutely need healthcare… But we also need to be asking, ‘What if people didn’t experience [illness] in the first place?’”

https://themacweekly.com/83691/news/mcsg-hosts-health-promotion-discusses-finances-fac-updates/

Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began patrolling neighborhoods like mine, on the West and South sid...
03/02/2025

Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began patrolling neighborhoods like mine, on the West and South sides of Chicago. The air feels heavier as families live in constant terror of being torn apart. Amidst the fearmongering, misinformation and “know your rights” posts, undocumented voices are forgotten. We become generalized stories—spoken about, but not to. At Macalester, some of us do not feel valued or supported by our peers, professors, staff or administration.

The issue of immigration is often pushed aside, and it is assumed that the federal government is solely to blame. This dismissal of the realities we face only deepens our sense of invisibility.

Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began patrolling neighborhoods like mine, on the West and South sides of Chicago. The air feels heavier as families live in constant terror of being torn apart. Amidst the fearmongering, misinformation and “know your rights” posts, undocumente...

Winter break marked a seminal occasion for insufferable horror movie fans such as yours truly: the release of Robert Egg...
02/02/2025

Winter break marked a seminal occasion for insufferable horror movie fans such as yours truly: the release of Robert Eggers’s long-awaited revamp of F. W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu” (2024). Eggers is best known for his folk-horror film “The Witch” and the seamen-centric “The Lighthouse,” but it is his reboot of the 1922 German film as a bleak, grotesque work of Gothic horror that won me over entirely.

I had been counting down the days since the first trailer gave the world a glimpse inside this depraved tale of nauseating seduction, manipulation and a vampire with a . . . delightfully bushy mustache and fuzzy Romanian hat? Work.

Winter break marked a seminal occasion for insufferable horror movie fans such as yours truly: the release of Robert Eggers’s long-awaited revamp of F. W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu” (2024). Eggers is best known for his folk-horror film “The Witch” and the seamen-centric “The Lighthouse,” b...

Macalester, despite some claims to the contrary, has Division I sports.Spring 2024 saw Women’s Club Lacrosse join the No...
02/02/2025

Macalester, despite some claims to the contrary, has Division I sports.

Spring 2024 saw Women’s Club Lacrosse join the North Central Women’s Lacrosse League’s D-I division. Now, Macalester’s men’s club soccer team, the White Squirrels, is joining the Upper Midwest Collegiate Soccer League (UMCSL), a D-I club league.

The promotion comes after a strong 5-1 season last year, the team’s first official season. They are the school’s second youngest club team, after the women’s club team, the Clementines.

Macalester, despite some claims to the contrary, has Division I sports. Spring 2024 saw Women’s Club Lacrosse join the North Central Women’s Lacrosse League’s D-I division. Now, Macalester’s men’s club soccer team, the White Squirrels, is joining the Upper Midwest Collegiate Soccer League ...

When they departed for winter break, the outlook for the Macalester men’s basketball team was bleak. They were 2-9 overa...
01/02/2025

When they departed for winter break, the outlook for the Macalester men’s basketball team was bleak. They were 2-9 overall and winless in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC). Since their return from their hiatus, however, the team has gone 4-4 and now sits two games below the last playoff spot with six games to go. Though faint, the Scots’ heart monitor is beeping, and they still have a shot at a full recovery.

A hallmark of the Scots’ season has been their ever-changing starting lineups. Macalester rolled out eight different sets of starters across 19 games this season. While injuries caused many of those lineup changes, Head Coach Abe Woldeslassie ’08 made the most significant alteration to his rotation when he moved Eric Wentz ’26 and Ryan Brush ’26 to the bench after the Scots returned from winter break.

When they departed for winter break, the outlook for the Macalester men’s basketball team was bleak. They were 2-9 overall and winless in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC). Since their return from their hiatus, however, the team has gone 4-4 and now sits two games below the ...

“Truly, just come to my living room, I’ve got cats who live here.” That is the idea behind Catzen Coffee, which opened o...
01/02/2025

“Truly, just come to my living room, I’ve got cats who live here.” That is the idea behind Catzen Coffee, which opened on Grand Avenue on Jan. 1. Vanessa Beardsley, the owner, wants the cafe to become “an absolute necessity” for the neighborhood. The cafe aspires to give back to the community that originally inspired it — years ago, two young Mac students left a note on Beardsley’s fence asking if they could play with her family’s pets. It struck her that there were so many people like those students: stressed, far from home, and in need of a comfortable place to relax. And also in need of better coffee. So, she set out to build Catzen Coffee, with its specialty coffee shop, a space called “The Living Room”, where patrons can interact with the cats, and “The Lab”, where coffee-focused classes are held.

This past November, Beardsley gave me a tour of the gutted interior of the building at 1416 Grand Avenue, which the café now resides in. The building was constructed in 1934 as a drug and seed store on the outskirts of Saint Paul. The renovated space now features a coffee counter, an event space with a dry bar and a patio with two cat-themed murals by Ara Elizabeth, a Saint Paul artist. Of course, there is also the cat room, which includes a chute that goes down to the basement should the cats want to be in a quieter space without humans.

“Truly, just come to my living room, I’ve got cats who live here.” That is the idea behind Catzen Coffee, which opened on Grand Avenue on Jan. 1. Vanessa Beardsley, the owner, wants the cafe to become “an absolute necessity” for the neighborhood. The cafe aspires to give back to the commun...

On Thursday, Jan. 23, members of Macalester College Student Government (MCSG) welcomed Vice President for Diversity, Equ...
31/01/2025

On Thursday, Jan. 23, members of Macalester College Student Government (MCSG) welcomed Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Alina Wong at their first weekly Legislative Body (LB) meeting of the semester. After hearing updates on work and initiatives within the division of institutional equity at the college, the LB asked Wong questions relating to Macalester’s future under President Donald Trump’s administration. The rest of MCSG’s meeting was dedicated to reintroductions of all members of the governing body, committee updates and plans for the upcoming retreat.

Wong began her speech to MCSG by framing her work in the role of vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion and with the division of institutional equity.

On Thursday, Jan. 23, members of Macalester College Student Government (MCSG) welcomed Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Alina Wong at their first weekly Legislative Body (LB) meeting of the semester. After hearing updates on work and initiatives within the division of institutional...

On Dec. 6, 2024, after hours of last-minute negotiations, the Macalester Undergraduate Workers’ Union (MUWU) and represe...
31/01/2025

On Dec. 6, 2024, after hours of last-minute negotiations, the Macalester Undergraduate Workers’ Union (MUWU) and representatives of Macalester staved off a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) hearing by coming to a consensus, known as a stipulated agreement, regarding the limits of MUWU’s bargaining unit, rules of voter eligibility and logistics of the election.

On Tuesday, Feb. 25, and Wednesday, Feb. 26, eligible Macalester student workers will have the opportunity to vote on whether they want to be represented by MUWU. If 50 percent plus one of those who participate in the election vote yes, MUWU will become a legally-recognized union and will be able to collectively bargain on student workers’ behalf.

On Dec. 6, 2024, after hours of last-minute negotiations, the Macalester Undergraduate Workers’ Union (MUWU) and representatives of Macalester staved off a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) hearing by coming to a consensus, known as a stipulated agreement, regarding the limits of MUWU’s barg...

There are two things that really pique my interest: food and competition. Put the two together and, just like that, you ...
10/12/2024

There are two things that really pique my interest: food and competition. Put the two together and, just like that, you end up with a once-in-a-lifetime opinion piece by yours truly.

Sweet potatoes, yams, whatever you fancy calling the honeyed orange spuds, you’re either a lover or a hater. Growing up, I was the latter. Now, I am the former and so are the chefs at Cafe Mac, who were tasked with competing in a grueling “food fight” using the terrific tubers and a legume of their choice.

The food fight, which took place on Nov. 21, featured chefs from four stations (Garlic & Basil, Warm & Soulful, Near & Far, and Simple & Certain) who battled for the title of food fight champion.

Here is my judgment.

There are two things that really pique my interest: food and competition. Put the two together and, just like that, you end up with a once-in-a-lifetime opinion piece by yours truly. Sweet potatoes, yams, whatever you fancy calling the honeyed orange spuds, you’re either a lover or a hater. Growin...

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