Sounding Board: Hope of a Better Tomorrow

Every year at Macalester, we commemorate Constitution Day on September 17, with our Community Engagement Center and Library co-hosting a program on a timely topic related to constitutional rights. This fall, that event featured a panel of Mac students and two employees from Minnesota’s Secretary of State office (including communications director Peter Bartz Gallagher ’05). Their conversation focused on voting as a tool to build the world you want to see. Some students were preparing to vote for the first time in a presidential election; others were ineligible to vote but passionate about helping their friends make a voting plan.

This Macalester Today edition went to print in October and, by the time it is in your hands, Election Day in the United States will have passed. Thanks to our “Mobilize Mac” group of students, faculty, and staff coordinating plans for election engagement and learning across campus, our students will have had many more opportunities to discuss, ask questions, and take action. Those experiences will have taken place in many classrooms, including in courses like “US Campaigns and Elections,” “Politics in Action,” and “Environmental Politics/Policy.” They’ll also happen outside the classroom, through engaging with campaigns, learning about local races, and attending events such as Congress to Campus, a national program that sends former elected leaders from opposite sides of the political aisle to colleges and universities to model communicating respectfully.

The work we do at Macalester to bolster the strength of our democracy should not be visible only during presidential election cycles, nor should it wane after votes are tabulated. Colleges and universities have a powerful opportunity—and a unique responsibility—to prepare students to become engaged voters. Our democracy works well only if we each assign ourselves the responsibility for taking care of it. At Mac, we guide students in building crucial skills for this work: learning how to ask important questions, articulate their perspectives, listen deeply with curiosity, and develop a sense of purpose around creating positive change. The years our students spend on campus are formative in developing and understanding their own identities and priorities, as well as our shared Macalester values.

No matter the results of this year’s United States presidential election, democratic values are increasingly contested and at stake around the world. We’re mindful that dictatorial, totalitarian impulses are taking root in many regions. On campus, our emphasis on global engagement and cross-cultural relationships will continue a longstanding tradition of preparing our students to advocate for freedom and liberty, wherever they go after graduation.

This work is part of Mac’s legacy, built over the college’s first 150 years. Our emphasis on civic responsibility won’t fade as we build toward our shared future together. Since the 1990s, we have concluded major campus events with the Macalester Peace Prayer. Those words echo across our work this election season and always: “As we continue together in our journey at Macalester, may we be nourished along the way by our years of friendship and learning. And may we draw upon them to create a more just and peaceful world, a world filled with fellowship and kinship, with respect and kindness for one another and with the hope of a better tomorrow.”

Dr. Suzanne M. Rivera is president of Macalester College.