In an email sent to the student body on Sept. 17, the Election Procedures Commission (EPC) announced the winners of the fall 2024 Macalester College Student Government (MCSG) elections. There were 10 open seats on MCSG: seven in the Legislative Body (LB) and three in the Cabinet. Eight of these spots were filled.
“I had some anxiety about limited engagement, but … all three [open liaison] positions … were contested, which is not how MCSG has been for much of the time I’ve been here,” MCSG President Joel Sadofsky ’25, who also serves as the chair of the EPC, said.
Within the LB, four spaces for the new first-year class representatives were up for grabs, as well as three spaces for junior class year representatives. The Cabinet entered the school year with empty spaces for the International Student, the Residential Life and Dining and the Infrastructure and Sustainability Liaison.
These vacancies were opened to the student body for filing on Sept. 5 and closed on Sept. 10. Once candidates filed, they were required to attend a candidates meeting before beginning their campaigns. Sept. 11 saw a candidates forum, where all the students running were given an opportunity to introduce themselves and their platforms to the student body. Emails requesting students to vote went out on Sept. 13 and ballots closed on Sept. 16.
This election saw a higher number of students filing to run than recent years, with 10 first-years running for the four open representative seats and two people for each of the liaison positions. In terms of election turnout, the first-year class saw the highest turnout of any class year, with 247 of the 545 votes cast across all years being from first-years.
“I think we had something like close to 50% of all first-years voted, which [is], for the world of MCSG elections, pretty good,” Sadofsky said.
“That’s above average turnout.” The incoming members of MCSG bring a high amount of passion and enthusiasm for enacting positive change on the Macalester campus. All of them emphasized wanting to connect with their fellow students and represent their voices.
“I want to build strong connections with the people here, and that’s not necessarily just an ideal for me in the student representative section,” first-year representative Cem Ozil ’28 said. “I want to get to know the people here.”
Other first-year representatives shared this sentiment. Chloe Xu ’28 highlighted the importance of understanding the class of 2028 and its unique needs and desires. Xu’s mindset developed as she was preparing her platform while running against nine other candidates.
“How can I present myself in a way that makes people not just want to vote for me, but actually want to talk to me, and want to be someone that they want to know?” Xu said. “I feel like the most important part of being a year level representative is actually knowing your year level because you’re representing them.”
In addition to Ozil and Xu, the class elected Aisha Ibrahim ’28 and Lina Solh ’28 as their class representatives for this year.
Junior representative Samantha Schafer ’26 ran on a split ticket with Ainsley Meyer ’26. They hope to give voice to the junior class, which can feel a bit disconnected at times as some juniors study abroad during the academic year. Schafer explained that this was a key aspect of why she decided to run.
“It’s just so hard for the junior class, and I want to be someone who’s just there to listen and be able to be a voice for the concerns that they have,” Schafer said.
For students elected into the Cabinet like Residential Life and Dining Liaison Galjer Yangwaue ’27, there is a strong emphasis on having an open door policy where students should feel comfortable coming to them.
“I hope I can be someone that students feel comfortable coming to so I can be that connection between [Residential] Life, staff, students and the dining committee and students,” Yangwaue said. “I’m also a student, and I would want students to feel like their voices are valued and that it’s taken seriously when people come to me for things that they want to see changed at Macalester.”
Echoing this, Laurice Jimu ’27, the newly elected International Student Liaison, seeks to build better connections between the international and domestic student populations at Macalester. He hopes all students, including domestic students, will come to speak with him and seek his perspective.
“I really want there to be an open communication between me and the student body, especially for domestic students,” Jimu said. “From what I’m seeing, the gap that’s there between the knowledge of domestic students on international students, is something that we actually need to address as well, and I wonder what we could do about that. But then what I hope is … I’m just a resource that someone is willing to use.”
Ibrahim expressed a similar view, underscoring the importance of creating a stronger connection between international and domestic students.
“I want to create this sense of community and connectedness, specifically try to bridge together the international population here and the domestic population,” Ibrahim said.
Shaping campus to be a better place for students is a core tenant of MCSG, and the first-year class representatives already have some ideas of areas they can work to improve upon campus life.
“I believe it’s very important for us to have a say in what happens here, both in the social environment that we want to create and reinforcement from our peers, but also in a structural way,” Ozil said.
Alongside these ideas on how to improve life on campus, the emphasis continually shifts back to getting to know the students they are representing so that they can adequately enact change on their behalf.
“I feel like … a lot of people would just say they’re a leader,” Ibrahim said. “They represent people, but they don’t actually represent people. So I really want to try and work with other first-years, and really be someone that people can come to for their concerns.”
Infrastructure and Sustainability Liaison Yamalí Rodas Figueroa ’27 comes into their role with a history of student advocacy.
“I’ve always had a passion for student advocacy and being engaged in spaces where you’re able to really speak about issues and being able to make changes, like positive changes,” Yangwaue said.
Having a support network that encourages students to put themselves out there and run for these positions is one of the best parts of Macalester, according to Jimu. After being an orientation leader this past year and speaking with his friends about potentially running for office, he decided to make the leap and encourages others to do so as well.
“That’s one thing that I love about Macalester in general: when you have a goal, when you have a dream, people are so quick to come around you and to either affirm you or make you see another picture that you otherwise wouldn’t,” Jimu said.
Like Jimu, Schafer encouraged students looking to get involved on campus — not just in MCSG — to engage with spaces that interest them.
“Becoming an upperclassman made me realize that it really doesn’t matter what everyone’s gonna think of you,” Schafer said. “Some people aren’t gonna like you. Some people are. And I really just wanted to be able to represent my class. And I think if I had the intention to do it, that I should just do it.”
