On March 26, the Legislative Body (LB) of the Macalester College Student Government (MCSG) met in the Weyerhaeuser Boardroom.
After opening the meeting with a land acknowledgement, Speaker of the LB Catherine Kane ’26 introduced Financial Affairs Committee (FAC) Chair David Christenfeld ’27 to give a presentation about student organizations’ budgets for the fall semester that exceed $4,000.
Christenfeld began his presentation by stating that any budgets over $4,000 for the upcoming Budget Bonanza must be presented to the LB and reminded LB members that they would not be voting on these budgets. Budget Bonanza is FAC’s process of allocating money to student organizations for the upcoming semester. For this Budget Bonzana, FAC received seven budget proposals that exceeded the $4,000 threshold. Christenfeld said that the total money requested during Budget Bonanza was $109,000, which is much lower than the $330,000 that was requested last year.
“There’s still some cutting that has to be done,” Christenfeld said. “So now we can really be cutting based on [the] financial code [and] gathering financial constraints,” referring to the changed constraints affected by changes to the organizational funding structure.
Christenfeld presented specific student organizations, starting with Afrika, which had asked for $5,521.41; the majority of its request was $4,281.17, intended for their Afrika showcase. Chief of Staff Lina Solh ’28 explained that the large budget request was due to the costliness of food and decorations for the event.
Christenfeld moved onto the $9,844.80 request from the Climbing Club, which broke down into $8,624.00 for climbing passes and $1,150.80 for the community climbing event BoulderFest. Christenfeld noted that the Climbing Club’s request is usually sizeable.
The Latinx Student Union (LSU) budget request of $5,072.09 included $4,400.35 in food and decor costs for the LSU Showcase and their Abuelite event.
Christenfeld said that, while these budget requests had to be presented to the LB, preparation for Budget Bonanza has been easier compared to recent years.
“Overall … there’s been a lot less requested money-wise,” Christenfeld said. “We’ve seen requests coming in traditional applications: the amount of events has been a lot lower. Even if this was doubled semesterly, we could still be about $100,000 less than when we were last year.”
MacBike had requested $4,691.69, comprising mostly capital to restock the bike shop and provide free bike lights and locks to students. The FAC does not consider these giveaways a prohibited direct gift, as the bike kits are used for student safety.
Representatives from MacShare then explained its $14,155.00 budget to the LB. According to August Goldstein ’27, most of this semester’s request comes from the need for a fridge.
“We originally asked for $10,000 [but] we were able to find one for a more reasonable price,” Goldstein said.
The rest of MacShare’s request comes from its subsidies — especially in an effort to make eggs more affordable — and events programming.
Christenfeld then proceeded to explain Outing Club’s $12,423 budget request, noting that the bulk of the organization’s request is spent on providing Wilderness First Aid certifications to interested students.
“This is just getting as many people as possible [and] building experts,” Christenfeld said. “That means that they can lead trips for every club [and] they can also lead trips for other organizations.”
Christenfeld also noted that while travel requests are not typically part of an organization’s Budget Bonanza request, orgs can make those requests in certain circumstances with limited timeframes.
Rounding out the budgets in excess of $4,000 was Pre-Med at Mac’s budget request for suturing training kits and a hands-on workshop.
Moving into FAC requests, Christenfeld detailed a capital expenditure request by Macalester DJ Society of $5,584.98 for two DJ controllers, a DJ mixer and two pairs of studio monitors.
“I think that while it is super expensive, what the FAC decided is that this is basically a necessary purchase for this org to exist,” Christenfeld said.
The motion to approve Macalester DJ Society’s request passed by a vote of 25-0 with no abstentions.
Solh later spoke in her capacity as Afrika’s treasurer about the organization’s request for $5,411.87. The allocations would support Afrika’s “Afrika! Showcase” event that “brings the Macalester community together to celebrate and learn about the richness and diversity of the African continent through music, dance, fashion, food, art and storytelling.”
Breaking down the costs for the event, Solh detailed that much of the price came from food purchases and the photobooth that would be rented for the event.
Afrika’s request was approved by a vote of 25-0 with no abstentions.
The LB then moved into discussions on chartering Immersive Book Club, an organization that aims to engage students in activities surrounding literature, including acting out scenes, staged activities and collaborative writing. The club was chartered by a vote of 25-0 with no abstentions.
Afterwards, Communications & Engagement Committee (CEC) Chair Sammi Shelton ’29 gave a presentation about the upcoming executive board elections. With the exception of the FAC chair, every position has at least one candidate for the upcoming elections. Shelton said that the CEC had seen lower engagement in MCSG events this academic year and posed a discussion question for the LB on the reasons behind the recent lack of engagement.
Senior Class Representative Marina Moberg ’26 asked if this could be due to the recent lack of legislation, to which Shelton said “possibly,” also referencing the cancellation of “LegiSLAYtion Week.”
First-year Class Representative Pacha Laplanche ’29 noted that no one from the class of 2028 had filed for an executive board position. Shelton said that there are only three positions available that are eligible for a split ticket and that most of the class is planning on studying away next academic year.
“I’m overall generally impressed by the CEC as a whole this year and the leadership of the CEC,” International Student Liaison Laurice Jimu ’27 said. “So don’t beat yourself down too much, because also you have to consider that we’re going through literal political turmoil among all other things.”
Shelton ended the conversation and said that the CEC thinks that the political situation in the United States and other countries is impacting mental capacity among the student body to be actively engaged with MCSG efforts.
All eyes turned to Christenfeld again with a quick update on FAC code edits, which will be undergoing revisions over the next few weeks.
Christenfeld detailed that MCSG representatives can make revisions without a separate resolution and he outlined what revisions he personally hoped to make.
“Some of it is just making sure everything around the document aligns with the switches that we’ve made,” Christenfeld said. “So [items related to] semesterly budgeting and the updated … student activity fee have to be changed.”
The meeting then adjourned with brief reminders about tabling and endorsement restrictions for MCSG elections.
