As the season’s first snow fell outside, Macalester College Student Government (MCSG) met for their weekly meeting on Thurs., Oct. 31, many in Halloween regalia. The agenda included an additional allocation request appeal, two student orgs looking to be chartered and further discussion of the voting amendment.
Before introducing the allocations request appeal, Financial Affairs Committee (FAC) Chair Luke Evans ’26 gave the Legislative Body (LB) an FAC “Health Check.” Evans listed the remaining amounts for the three funds FAC divides its budget into — travel, capital and operating — have $51,618.21, $12,558.05 and $44,047.27, respectively.
FAC then introduced the appeal made by QuestBridge for $3,608 to send the nine members of the QuestBridge leadership team to Boston.
The trip falls during National QuestBridge Week, and would let Mac’s QuestBridge leadership meet with leaders at Boston University, Boston College and Tufts University.
Chapter liaison Melody Woodward ’27 explained to the LB that this would help the groups support first-generation and low-income students.
“A lot of what QuestBridge does supports college access, students getting into college, but it’s also about supporting students through their undergraduate experience and creating connections nationally with those students, to provide opportunities that we wouldn’t have access to otherwise,” Woodward said.
The initial request had been $6,858.99, which FAC rejected because of the high cost per student traveling. QuestBridge amended their request when making this appeal, nearly halving the cost per student, and now has FAC’s endorsement.
The vote to approve the request passed, with 23 votes in favor, one opposed and no abstentions.
The LB then voted to charter Macalester Green Athletics Club. The org aims to partner green initiatives and sustainability with club and varsity athletics. Where other on campus green orgs focus on policy or gardening, this org’s President Bruno Guiduli ’26 sees initiatives for athletics to be greener. He looks at ensuring stadium lights don’t stay on unnecessarily, and making sure club sports use compostable dishware.
The org was chartered, with a unanimous vote of 23 in favor.
Macalester College Heterodox Academy Campus Community (HxA) then presented their charter to the LB. The org intends to promote viewpoint diversity and open inquiry at Macalester. This fall, a Dialogue Across Difference event discussing divestment was canceled. HxA presents themselves as advocates for speakers in situations like this.
Unlike most Macalester orgs, HxA would not be specific to Macalester College. Like the Sunrise Movement, it’s connected to the national Heterodox Academy organization, which has chapters on campuses nationwide. Org representative Matthew Allaire ’27 argued that connecting to this broader org would offer independent funding and connect the group to a speaker list.
Some MCSG members presented concerns about the broader HxA organization.
“While I don’t take issue with the premise of an organization like this on campus, I have serious reservations about the national organization,” Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) Chair Tristan Niedzielski ’25 said. “In particular, for claiming to solely be about promoting an open dialogue, there’s a clear political leaning to the organization and its funders are highly questionable. One large funder has also funded groups that evict Palestinians from their homes which is an expansion of settler colonialism … Another Heterodox funder has funded both climate change denialism and the organization behind Project 2025.”
Sophomore class representative AnLian Krishnamurthy ’27 encouraged all LB members to put aside personal political beliefs when voting.
“Remember that just because a club might not align with your political beliefs doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be allowed to exist,” Krishnamurthy said.
The group fielded more questions from the LB, about the HxA organization itself and concerns raised by Vice President Ryan Connor ’25 about the hate speech and hostile environment policies in the charter.
A motion was made to table chartering until the next meeting when it could be further discussed, and was passed with 13 votes in favor, 10 opposed and one abstaining.
The meeting shifted to further discussion and questions about Krishnamurthy’s amendment to make voting during MCSG meetings be conducted via a Google Form in order to limit peer influence during contentious votes. The proposed amendment was updated after feedback during the last meeting. Now, the results would be published online by a spreadsheet unless a simple majority of the LB voted to maintain the vote as anonymous.
The votes would be published on the Macalester website and only accessible to the campus community. Sadofsky raised concerns about vulnerability to student-assisted doxxing.
More logistical questions were raised, and first-year class representative Chloe Xu ’28 motioned to table the issue until these were ironed out.
The vote passed, with 24 in favor and no opposition or abstention.
Residential Life & Dining Liaison Galjer Yangwaue ’27 shared updates from the week, including the implementation of in-person training for Cafe Mac workers and a system to log who has and hasn’t been trained. Cafe Mac managers will now hold open office hours when workers can meet with them. Temporary fans have been added to the Grille, and Yangwaue is looking towards ways to make that infrastructure more permanent.
On the Residential Life side, she’s met with Kyle Flowers about Resident Assistant compensation, and safe-sex supplies in dorms have been refilled.
Evans updated the LB that the FAC had approved five requests and tabled one.
Following these committee updates, the meeting was adjourned.
