With classes on Monday morning and homework to complete, most Northwestern students weren’t wandering around campus at midnight on Sunday.
But then again, most NU students aren’t running for Associated Student Government officer positions.
As the campaign week officially kicked off at 12:01 a.m., the 14 candidates and their staffs sacrificed sleep for something much more important – publicity. New campaign guidelines restricting fliers at Norris University Center made candidates determined to advertise as much as possible throughout the rest of campus.
Fred Noyes walked past The Arch just after midnight and tried to enter a locked Harris Hall to put up fliers for student services vice presidential candidate Courtney Brunsfeld.
“I’d rather be sleeping, but I have that much faith in Courtney and the job she would do if elected,” said Noyes, a Weinberg junior. “Now if I could just get into the building . . . “
Pete Reynolds, a member of presidential candidate Jordan Heinz’s campaign team, staked out University Library. He noted that many students will pass the signs on their way inside the library. Reynolds explained that although he was cold, he was happy to help Heinz, who is also his roommate.
“We have about 5 million posters,” said Reynolds, laughing. “They all have to go someplace.”
Dorm bulletin boards emerged as popular places to hang fliers. Debkumar Sarkar, an academic vice presidential candidate, cautioned that the war to get prime space was “pretty intense.”
“I turned around in Bobb after hanging up my posters and saw five different campaigns putting up their own material in the blink of an eye,” said Sarkar, a McCormick sophomore.
Hazem Tabahi, who was hanging posters in Allison Hall for executive vice president candidate Hisham Zaid, noted that that campaign workers battle for space only at the start of the election.
“Considering it’s the first day, getting signs up shouldn’t seem that urgent yet,” said Tabahi, a Weinberg senior. “But it must be important because people from all the different campaigns are putting up fliers already.”
In addition to fliers, campaign staffs chalked along Sheridan Road and on the driveway to Norris.
Heinz campaign managers Kate Duffy and Christy Sommers made sure to chalk their candidate’s name on both the north and south ends of the road. Sommers said that although she is inexperienced at chalking, any and all publicity is worthwhile.
“Kate and I are basically chalking virgins,” said Sommers, a Weinberg freshman. “We are just praying it doesn’t rain in the next few days so all our work can stay throughout the week.”
Although most campaigns worked throughout the night to put up fliers, some candidates felt the night wasn’t as crazy as they had expected.
As the night wore on, candidates expressed pleasure with the efforts of their staffs. At 1:30 a.m., presidential candidate Anil Hurkadli worked on hanging up fliers in Allison.
Other staff members said they were happy that campaigning was finally under way.
Laurie Jaeckel, working for Jada Black’s student services vice presidential campaign, said Black has been talking about putting her campaign together for months.
“Jada has been developing great platform ideas and working on this for such a long time,” said Jaeckel, a Weinberg sophomore. “That’s why I chose to come out tonight to help her.”
