President Joel Sadofsky ’25 began Macalester College Student Government’s (MCSG) weekly meeting on Feb. 6, 2025, with a Presidential Advisory Group (PAG) update. PAG’s current areas of focus are ensuring the safety of transgender students, undocumented and international students, and general assaults on higher education.
More generally, PAG covers various topics of concern for the Macalester student body, such as Mac Books, divestment and dining surveys. Board of Trustees (BoT) Secretary Sara Suelflow coordinates PAG, which includes Sadofsky (currently serving as the student member), staff council and faculty advisory council chairs, the alumni board and others.
As for the Financial Affairs Committee (FAC), an overview of an updated financial code was provided by newly elected FAC Chair David Christenfeld ’27, who served as interim FAC Chair at the time of this meeting. Christenfeld shared an outline of the revamped code, detailing its several suggested amendments.
MCSG proceeded to vote on amendments to the financial code, one of which will now allow for six at-large members to serve on the FAC.
“Six is what we settled at… because of how much money we’re looking at, and how much effect that is happening on the campus…we have a lot of eyes looking at each request,” Christenfeld said.
Another amendment ensures that the Legislative Body (LB) has oversight on the decisions that FAC makes. This previously followed unwritten rule has now been officialized. Looking forward, the FAC explained that future amendments to the financial code are possible.
In response to a mentioned concern regarding student organization and FAC correspondence, Christenfeld reassured the LB that the FAC will attempt to address funding requests in a timely manner, so that they will be able to function as intended, conducting their operations smoothly.
MCSG, in collaboration with Mac for Palestine, has edited its divestment proposal in the wake of the BoT’s decision not to financially divest from companies supporting Israel. This divestment proposal discussion was led by Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) Chair Tristan Niedzielski ’25. The renewed divestment proposal will be put to a vote on Thursday, Feb. 13, at the Legislative Body (LB) meeting.
“The goal for this is to show that we were not in favor of that vote,” Niedzielski said. “I think it’s important for the student government to align themselves with the student body in representing the fact that there was a lot of frustration and irritation currently, [and] disappointment with the Board of Trustees for doing this. So standing up and calling out their cowardice [is needed].”
Another major goal of the proposed amendments in the new divestment proposal is to push for the BoT to promise not to further invest in any corporations that aid in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians.
This continued proposal effort was presented as a way to encourage BoT to reconsider its previous decision while also gaining a greater understanding of how it intends to make future investments. Those in favor of the altered divestment proposal hope it will successfully limit new investment decisions that would continue the advancement of the Palestinian genocide.
“With this resolution I thought it still important for us to put a message out there that we support a divestment and continue to call the college to divest,” Niedzielski said. “Whether it be this year or in 10 years I think it’s important to put our name down saying that we support that.”
One of the Health and Wellness Liaisons, Emma Rohrs ’26, reported meeting with the Hamre Center to review the Center’s priorities for the remainder of this semester.
In response to Trump’s executive orders, International Student Liaison Laurice Jimu ’27 highlighted the services that exist for international students to understand their rights. International Student Programs (ISP) has a new service specialist, Laurie O’Brien, who has been hired to support the needs of international students while navigating ongoing visa concerns.
“[Hiring of O’Brien] is a great step towards us international students feeling safer,” Jimu said. “I highly recommend international students take a look at that.”
Athletics and Recreation Liaison Ash Granda-Bondurant ’27 announced that club athletes are now eligible to receive first aid and taping training. This measure was introduced to better support club athletes by improving their ability to manage potential injuries.
In addition, the Belonging and Accessibility Liaison Willow Albano ’26 announced plans to create spaces of belonging in a collaboration between the women’s, gender and sexuality studies (WGSS) department and the Lealtad-Suzuki Center for Social Justice (LSC) departments.
As for campus committees, the Student Organizations Committee (SOC) is also in the process of updating its code. FAC allocated additional funding towards MacBikes so that more students have access to learn about and participate in bike repair.
AAC announced that they have been making progress on events, effectively scheduling dates for two of them. AAC is also accepting 15 applicants from the Graduate School Application Test (GSAT) grant program, awarding them $175 each. This process included the AAC writing a bill requesting the grant increase. Finally, they met to discuss potential changes to the pass/fail policy for students studying abroad.
The meeting concluded with the acknowledgment of the student protest taking place in support of the immigrant student population amidst ongoing ICE raid threats. Sadofsky noted that the protest was still taking place as the meeting came to a close and reiterated that anyone could choose to participate if they wished.
