Last week’s Macalester College Student Government (MCSG) meeting, which was held on Thursday, March 21 in the library’s Harmon Room, featured a speed round of student organization budget proposals.
To start the meeting, Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) Chair Joel Sadofsky ’25 introduced a statement written by the Scholarly Publishing Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC). This letter advocates that colleges can only offer opt-out models with respect to the purchase of textbooks, as opposed to the automatic billing model, which will be implemented this fall. The Legislative Body (LB) voted unanimously to sign the statement.
Health and Wellness Liaison Emma Rohrs ’26 then facilitated a visit from staff at the Laurie Hamre Center for Health and Wellness, including Executive Director Jen Jacobsen, Medical Director Steph Walters, Director of Health Promotion and Sexual Respect Tiger Simpson and Counseling Director Hanin Harb.
Jacobson spoke on the clinic’s priorities, which are built upon data that highlights which services have the greatest impact on students.
“We aren’t necessarily saving that many walk-in spots for illness and injury and that’s on purpose,” Jacobsen said. “If we look at the data about what makes a big difference in the lives of young folks there, it isn’t as much someone who was nice to us during our ankle sprain — it is more ‘are [students] accessing mental health services? Are our trans and non-binary students able to get the services they need in a timely manner? Are we prioritizing sexual health, reproductive care, reproductive justice?’”
The discussion then moved to a Q&A, in which Simpson explained the shift away from the Sexy Trainers program, which provided sex education and safe sex supplies to Mac students in previous years. First, Simpson pointed to the fact that Sexy Trainers were student volunteers and not paid employees. Second, he said that some students provided feedback sharing that not everyone felt ready for Sexy Trainers’ lessons.
“A lot of what we were getting [from the feedback] was this was a real big deep dive into sexual health and sexual resources when a lot of people were not necessarily ready for them,” Simpson said.
After the visit, the LB heard budget requests for more than $4,000 from student organizations, with each org being given one minute to present their requests. Some of the highest requests came from MCSG with $20,698, Outing Club with $18,260 and Climbing Club with $15,080.
In total, orgs requested $269,598.98, with $244,688.52 from operating funds and $24,910.46 from capital funds.
Financial Affairs Committee (FAC) Chair Eliora Hansonbrook ’25 said that FAC would be talking to students orgs over the weekend and finalizing the budget on Monday, March 25.
To round out the meeting, President Mariah Loeffler-Kemp ’24 shared that the part of the student handbook removed this past summer — which protects the freedom from censorship for student media organizations — has been reinstated.
