On Thursday, April 11, Macalester College Student Government (MCSG) held their weekly Legislative Body (LB) meeting to discuss campus committee updates, changes in the athletics department, student organization funding appeals and the final budget for the 2024-25 academic year.
Eleanor Malcolm ’26 and Ellie Berkenblit ’24 began with updates from the Dining Advisory Committee. They noted that while progress has been made in sustainably disposing of food waste, Bon Appétit has been unreceptive to concerns about food safety. They plan to put QR codes on the dining hall tables so that students can more easily provide feedback on their experiences with Cafe Mac.
Wrapping up committee updates, Ella Skranka ’26 and Sylvia Choi ’24, on behalf of the Student Employment Advisory Committee, explained that they are working to improve communication between students and supervisors by creating a new feedback form. They are also increasing their social media presence to improve transparency and resource accessibility.
In addition, the committee organized the student employee appreciation event that took place last Thursday, April 11.
MCSG then heard from Donnie Brooks, the director of the athletics department, who shared changes the athletics department is making to better serve athletes and non-athletes alike. Among these updates, the gym in the Leonard Center now opens at 8 a.m. on weekends instead of at 10 a.m. and has a fueling station where anyone can grab snacks after their workout. He also encouraged students to participate next semester in Mac Fit, a program where students can win raffle prizes by logging workouts throughout the week.
Brooks explained that his focus for next year is promoting further unity across campus through sports and recreational exercise. He’s noticed a lack of spirit and traditions at Mac and hopes to change that.
“There should probably be five things that every Macalester student knows when they show up to a frisbee contest, women’s basketball, tennis [or] hockey contest — and they can’t all be about drinking blood and smoking crack,” Brooks said.
The meeting continued with an additional allocations request from Mac Chess, after they were denied their request in the last MCSG meeting. Financial Affairs Committee (FAC) Chair Eliora Hansonbrook ’25 welcomed Carlos Medina ’26, a representative for Mac Chess. Hansonbrook prefaced the discussion by stating that the previous request had been denied by FAC because they were only approving travel expenses under special circumstances.
Medina explained how important attending tournaments is for Mac Chess, as they’ve only been able to attend one tournament in the past two semesters. “Obviously, if we wanted to stay a chess club, we would actually have to compete,” Medina said.
“Otherwise, we’re just people on their phones, meeting up somewhere, trying to play chess on the phone.”
The additional allocations request was for $390.60, a reduction from their previous request of $3,560.40. This new, reduced amount, would cover a two-day van rental to provide transportation to a tournament.
Vice President Emma Kopplin ’24 asked why funding requests for travel were being treated differently this year from previous years.
“Basically, we ran out of travel funding,” Hansonbrook said.
While there’s a small reserve that was moved over from the capital funding budget, FAC has implemented a new, more involved process to request travel funding.
Hansonbrook pointed to Quiz Bowl, who qualified for nationals a few weeks ago, as an example. She said that cases like this, which require long distance travel, would be considered to fall under those special circumstances.
In the end the LB voted and approved the funding request for Mac Chess, with 21 votes in favor, one vote against and one abstaining.
Next, Hansonbrook presented the final student org budget for MCSG approval. The budget allocates $178,451.10 to student orgs for the 2024-25 academic year, which is similar to previous years’ budgets.
MCSG unanimously voted to approve the budget, with 23 in favor and none opposing or abstaining.
The meeting then transitioned to MCSG committee updates, where Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) Chair Joel Sadofsky ’25 reminded students applying to graduate school that Mac will cover GSAT fees. Sadofsky also shared that AAC would be selecting the recipients of the Outstanding Educator of the Year and Outstanding Student Educator of the Year awards, which will be announced on April 23.
Kopplin updated the group on the redesigned space in Kagin Commons, saying that she has been joining the Lealtad-Suzuki Center for Social Justice (LSC) at meetings with architects to talk about what the space could look like.
The meeting concluded with a reflection exercise led by President Mariah Loeffler-Kemp ’24, wherein LB members broke into groups to discuss what they found MCSG had done well this semester and to identify places of growth.
Final announcements included encouragement for students to file for class representative positions and sharing that Gabe Karsh ’25 will serve as the Board of Trustees liaison for the 2024-25 academic year.
