The Ruth Stricker Dayton Campus Center serves as the main meeting place on campus. This $18.5 million building has a series of conference rooms, study areas, computers, lecture halls, the Highlander Store, the student lounge (equipped with pingpong tables, a movie viewing area, a popcorn machine, and a pool table), Café Mac, and the student post office. Students can go to the information desk for more details about everything from public transportation and making reservations for on-campus events to discounted student tickets for Twin Cities theaters and signing up for outings sponsored by Program Board.
Macalester also boasts a state-of-the-art athletics and wellness complex called the Leonard Center, though more playfully called "the Nard" and "the LenCen." This $45 million building spans 175,000 square feet and has everything a student athlete could dream of. The Leonard Center has weight-lifting facilities, a natatorium, a 200-meter track, dance practice rooms, and basketball/volleyball courts. There are even saunas to sweat out all of the toxins built up from the weekend. The Leonard Center is also home of Scotty’s (a juice and snack bar), several gathering areas, and the Health and Wellness Center. In terms of other facility perks, the Humanities Building has the Humanities Resource Center (HRC), with plenty of computers and listening rooms, and Media Services, which rents out films and other media equipment like cameras, microphones, and recorders. Olin-Rice, the science building at Macalester, has state-of-the-art scientific equipment and a huge collection of biology and geology specimens for students to study and use for experimentation. There is also a giant wind turbine behind Olin-Rice that supplies some of the energy used to power the building.