At the Macalester College Student Government (MCSG) meeting on Tuesday, March 8, first-year representative and Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) member Joel Sadofsky ’25 presented his bill to increase funding for Macalester’s Textbook Reserve Program. The program, which is funded through the AAC, works with the library to purchase textbooks for students to check out. Each year, the Textbook Reserve Program has a budget of $10,000 plus 7% rollover from the previous year. Macalester’s institutional records show that this budget has not been increased since at least the 2015-16 school year. The proposed bill increases the program’s budget to $13,000 with the 7% rollover from the previous year. 

The Financial Affairs Committee (FAC) had previously approved the bill, and the Legislative Body (LB) passed the bill with a unanimous vote. The new budget will be included in the FAC’s upcoming financial code revisions.

The LB then welcomed Marty Stoner ’25 and Matthew Sullivan ’23 to introduce their charter for a proposed table tennis club. In previous years, there had been a table tennis student organization, but it dissolved due to a lack of resources. A chartered table tennis club would give members funding to buy permanent equipment. 

“Our goal with it is really just to make it fun,” Sullivan said. “We’re trying to steer clear of anything remotely related to club sports… Our main interest is having fun playing Ping-Pong with friends.” 

The charter was approved by the Student Organizations Committee (SOC) and passed the LB unanimously. 

MCSG devoted the rest of the meeting to updates from various committees. First-year representative Eliora Hansonbrook ’25 of the SOC announced that the deadline for new organizations to finish the chartering process is April 4. 

Next, Vice President and Student Services and Relation Committee (SSRC) Chair Jordanella Maluka ’23 discussed SSRC’s meeting with Jen Jacobsen, executive director of the Hamre Center, about increasing mental health resources and access to menstrual products. 

“We had a very productive, effective meeting,” Maluka said. “Jacobsen seemed very positive about [access to menstrual products], so that’s something we will continue to push forward.”

The SSRC also agreed to work on a statement regarding transparency surrounding student elections, following the delay in elections last month. Similarly, SOC Chair Katie McCarthy ’22 said that some of the LB is working on putting together an informational page for students that explains the election code and how the Election Procedures Committee (EPC) functions.

President Shreya Nagdev ’22 told the LB that she will be attending bi-weekly meetings with the Faculty Advisory Committee and Staff Advisory Committee chairs in order to increase communication between employees and MCSG. The Faculty Advisory Committee plans to attend an MCSG meeting in the coming weeks. 

Finally, Nagdev asked MCSG to re-evaluate their comfort with in-person meetings in an anonymous form. If enough members agree, MCSG will resume in-person meetings in April. This decision will be made after spring break.

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