Candidates prepare to run for ASG Exec

Jennifer Leopoldt and Jessica Gdowski

April 3, 2003

As election hopefuls rush to meet today’s deadline to officially announce their Associated Student Government campaigns, two of four races have only one known candidate.

Interested students must submit campaign petitions with 200 signatures by 5 p.m. today to ASG Election Commission Chairman Avery Maron in ASG’s third-floor office in Norris University Center.

Campuswide elections take place April 15. A full list of candidates will be available after the deadline, said Maron, a Communication junior.

“The unexpected always happens,” he said. “I’m confident that all four races will be contested.”

Offices up for grabs are president and three vice president positions. The races for executive and student services vice presidents were uncontested as of Thursday evening.

Nafis Ahmed, Mike Blake, Mike Fong and Tamara Kagel stated their intention to run for president.

Ahmed, Willard Residential College’s former president and current senator, said he is the best possible representative of students’ interests even though he lacks the ASG experience of the other candidates.

“I think that if I bring a fresh outsider perspective to ASG, I can really change things,” said Ahmed, a Communication sophomore. “My main thing is screw the politics and screw the bureaucracy. I want to get what the students want.”

Blake, who most recently served as coordinator of For Members Only, has previous ASG exposure as a two-year senator for 1835 Hinman. He said he hopes to help Northwestern students the same way others have helped him.

“I’m an all-around candidate,” said Blake, a Medill junior. “I’m pretty much the outsider who can look on the inside. I feel students deserve the best.”

Fong, ASG student services vice president, said he is running for president to build a campuswide sense of community. Though balancing a campaign and coursework takes its toll, Fong said his campaign is his main focus.

“All my campaign workers are making sacrifices,” said Fong, a Weinberg junior. “I think it would be completely inappropriate for me to put anything personal first, be it academics or anything else.”

Kagel, the current ASG academic vice president, said she is concerned that ASG’s identity is “becoming blurred” between being a governing or programming body. She is proud of ASG’s efforts to reform election procedures, which she said should improve upcoming campaigns.

“I think this year should be a much healthier race,” said Kagel, a Communication junior.

Following last year’s election, Kagel and ASG President Rachel Lopez issued public apologies for violating campaign guidelines.

Other students have announced their candidacies for executive vice president, student services vice president and academic vice president.

The only candidate who confirmed his campaign for executive vice president is Bryan Tolles, a fraternity senator, who hopes to increase on-campus fund-raising opportunities for groups who don’t receive student funding. Tolles said he feels prepared for his upcoming campaign.

“We’re working on the Web site, the petition has names, the platform is complete,” said Tolles, a Weinberg sophomore. “It’s all coming together.”

The student services vice president position also might be uncontested. The only student who confirmed his candidacy is Adam Forsyth, senator for Students for Ecological and Environmental Development. Forsyth said his time on the student services committee has prepared him to take over as the committee’s leader.

“You can do a lot as a senator, but (on the Executive Board) you get a chance to interact with administrators and student leaders,” said Forsyth, a Weinberg sophomore. “I would do a good job in the transition and make sure no projects got lost in the shuffle.”

Two members of Senate’s academic committee will vie for academic vice president.

Weinberg freshman Dan Broadwell, a Foster-Walker Complex senator, said his experience on the committee gives him “an advantage going in.”

“I know how to work within the system to get things done,” said Broadwell, who said he will continue to lobby for target P/N grading in classes, an issue raised by the academic committee.

Prajwal Ciryam, another candidate for academic vice president, said he also hopes to focus on target P/N grading.

“Things should be done step by step,” said Ciryam, a Weinberg freshman. “By taking things in small bites, we should be able to do a lot this year.”