On Thursday, April 24, Macalester College Student Government (MCSG) convened their weekly Legislative Body (LB) meeting in the Harmon room of the library. Topics on the table included the Student Organizations Committee (SOC) Code and next year’s MCSG plans.
Starting off, SOC Chair Liv Peterson ’27 presented the new SOC Code. The document would outline the roles and responsibilities of the SOC on campus. The LB was given the opportunity to review the new document, and provide feedback before voting on the Code’s approval at MCSG’s final meeting on May 1.
Next, the LB shifted their focus to the future of MCSG and upcoming projects. Financial Affairs Committee (FAC) Chair David Christenfeld ’27 took the floor to present on raising the student activity fee.
Currently, each student at Macalester pays $230 for their student activity each academic year: $130 in the fall and $100 in the spring. FAC then divides that pot of money amongst student organizations. The new proposal increases this fee, which has remained unchanged since 2013.
“This is a huge decision we have to take, so I really want people to give their input on what they’re really thinking,” Christenfeld said, opening the floor to remarks from the LB.
Some representatives voiced their support of the proposal while others, including Sophomore Class Representative AnLian Krishnamurthy ’27, expressed concern for the larger budgeting implications of an increased fee.
“This will just give clubs more incentive to over-request money … from your FAC presentation a couple of meetings ago, you listed the amount that was requested and the amount that was spent, and those are vastly different numbers,” Krishnamurthy said.
Christenfeld acknowledged this discrepancy and replied that this change might require a move to a semesterly budgeting system, rather than the annual budgeting process in place at the moment.
“If we did raise the student activity fee, we’d roll it out with semesterly budgeting, which is supposed to greatly reduce the bulk of work as [student organizations] only have to plan one semester out,” Christenfeld said.
MCSG President Joel Sadofsky supported Christenfeld’s presentation with concrete figures from other peer institutions. The student activity fee at St. Thomas University is $240, but is tied to comprehensive fee increases, meaning that when the school raises their tuition, the student activity fee increases by the same percentage. Mac’s other neighbor, St. Catherine University, places their fee at a higher $294. Conversations on this subject will be resumed in the fall semester as decisions will need to be made quickly if new processes and benchmarks are created.
In regards to how this would factor into financial aid considerations, Sadofsky reassured members of the LB that high-need students would see this increase covered as part of their package.
“The comprehensive fee … is what is used to determine student financial aid packages,” Sadofsky said. “Increasing the comprehensive fee does have implications on financial aid … The financial aid formula for how much those [high need] students are able to pay would be the same. This would mean more demand on the entire financial aid pot of money on the college, although I will say it would be probably significantly less than their regular year on year tuition increases we’ve had … Students with high need would not be paying this out of pocket, and students with low need would see their comprehensive fee go up.”
Christenfeld explained that, because the college sets its comprehensive fee for the following academic year in October, MCSG would have to come to a conclusion on the fee increase this October for the change to go into effect for 2026-27.
Shifting gears, Interim Speaker of the LB and Vice President Ryan Connor ’25 returned to the podium and instructed the LB to gather with other members of their class year to work on transition documents. MCSG’s next meeting will be a comprehensive meeting including new members who were voted in in the recent rounds of MCSG elections. After hearing final updates, MCSG closed the meeting.
