Macalester is a community that intentionally leans into challenging conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion. Mac’s value of multiculturalism inherently means a commitment to cultural competency, building bridges, and reaching out across differences.
Macalester College is located on the homeland of the Dakota people—Mni Sota Makoce [Mini SOta Ma-KOH-chay], which translates to Land Where the Waters Reflect the Clouds. Although they were forcibly exiled by aggressive and persistent settler colonialism, the Dakota people still flourish despite this painful history. We make this acknowledgment to honor the Dakota people, ancestors, and descendants, as well as the land itself. Macalester engages in ongoing work toward repair and partnership with the Dakota people and the land, as well as to support Indigenous members of our campus community.
Dr. Alina Wong serves as Macalester’s Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. She recognizes students as leaders in the efforts to make Macalester and our local and global communities equitable for all.
Emma is a double major in Linguistics and Educational Studies. Wanting the balance of a small liberal arts college in big urban area, she feels at home in the Twin Cities. Her experience in athletics is just one space that has brought valued friendships and belonging.
Shweta is a double major in Political Science and International Studies, with a concentration in Legal Studies. She shares the experience of first visiting Macalester and then feeling seen in the Mac community—fully valued for her varied interests and identities.
Macalester’s student experience is richer, with deeper meaning, when our student body reflects our values.
U.S. STUDENTS THAT IDENTIFY AS PERSON OF COLOR
STUDENTS WHO ARE FIRST GENERATION TO COLLEGE
U.S. STUDENTS THAT ARE PELL GRANT RECIPIENTS
Macalester values diverse perspectives and backgrounds. Across campus students will find resources to engage in conversation, programming, and community around identities and culture. Support for academic success, and physical and mental well-being is available for students in multiple settings, with intentionally for inclusion and equity.
Minnesota, the ancestral home to seven Ojibwe (Anishinaabe/Chippewa) reservations and four Dakota (Sioux) communities, became a state through a series of treaties signed with the Native nations in the region. Founded in Minneapolis during the summer of 1968, the American Indian Movement (AIM) jump-started decades of Indigenous activism and cultural revival in the Twin Cities and beyond. Our Native students build community in the Twin Cities through internships with Indigenous-centered organizations, events at the Minneapolis American Indian Center, and by supporting Indigenous cultural arts. Learn more about Minnesota and the Twin Cities Indigenous history.
In the 1930s, Rondo Avenue was at the core of St. Paul’s largest Black neighborhood. African-Americans who had lived in Minnesota for decades and others who were just arriving from the South made up a vibrant, vital community that was in many ways independent of the white society around it. The construction of I-94 in 1968 shattered this tight-knit community, displaced thousands of African-Americans into a racially segregated and discriminatory housing market, and erased a now legendary neighborhood. While the construction of I-94 radically changed the landscape of the neighborhood, the community of Rondo still exists and its persistence and growth are celebrated through events like Rondo Days and the Jazz Festival. Learn more about Macalester’s partnership with the Historic Rondo Neighborhood.
More recently, many communities of immigrants and refugees have made their home in the Twin Cities. In Saint Paul, you’ll find Minnesota’s Hmong community, the largest urban concentration of Hmong people in the country. In the early 1990s, Minneapolis’ Cedar-Riverside neighborhood and East Lake Street became home to the largest concentrations of Somali refugees. Mexican and Latinx communities have grown to not only reside in Saint Paul’s West Side or the city of West St. Paul, but also East Lake Street, Nicollet Ave, and Central Ave.
Minnesota’s cultural landscape continues to grow. Within walking distance of campus, you’ll find a variety of restaurants and cuisines that reflect this, including Ethiopian, Nepali, and Thai. If you are in the area, we recommend visiting Midtown Global Market.
Interested in learning more about diversity, equity, and inclusion at Macalester? Feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] and an Admissions representative will be in touch with you.
