Associated Student Government presidential candidates bypassedlow blows and instead praised one another’s visions to improvestudent life during Thursday night’s debate at Norris UniversityCenter.

Nafis Ahmed, Michael Blake, Mike Fong and Tamara Kagel discussedtheir presidential platforms and unopposed executive vicepresidential candidate Bryan Tolles spoke about his goals in theASG-sponsored debate in front of about 50 audience members, most ofwhom are affiliated with one of the campaigns. Students can voteonline April 15.

All four candidates emphasized the need for ASG to inspirestudents and reduce apathy by creating a stronger Northwesterncommunity through social events.

Ahmed discussed the need to begin student pep rallies, Kagelmentioned her idea to screen movies on Deering Meadow, Fong focusedon bringing back bar nights to Norris and Blake said he would likeNU students to turn Evanston’s streets into Friday nightfestivals.

Both Ahmed and Kagel also touched on plans to change ASG’sstructure, while Blake and Fong focused on leadership skills theywould bring to the office.

Ahmed, former Willard Residential College president, saidattending an ASG Senate meeting made him want to cut throughSenate’s “bureaucracy and red tape.”

“We should focus on bills first and bullshit later,” said Ahmed,a Communication sophomore.

Kagel, ASG’s current academic vice president, agreed that thegroup’s focus should shift from internal matters back to studentneeds. She said ASG has been too hesitant in soliciting studentopinion, she said.

“ASG is so concentrated on itself that it doesn’t look at whatmight be wrong,” said Kagel, a Communication junior.

But Blake said Senate’s accomplishments outweigh its negatives– although many students are unaware of this.

Blake, former For Members Only coordinator and 1835 Hinmansenator, said senators should tell their constituencies about ASG’ssuccesses.

“You have to show that you do something outside of Wednesdaynights,” said Blake, a Medill junior.

Audience members submitted written questions to moderator MattHall, ASG secretary/parliamentarian. One issue raised during thequestion period was how candidates would support NU’s lesbian, gay,bisexual and transgender community.

Kagel said while NU collects data about students who are Jewishor from different ethnic backgrounds, it does not track LGBTstudents.

“Just because we can’t count them doesn’t mean we shouldn’tserve them,” Kagel said.

NU may have smaller groups, Ahmed said, but everyone is a memberof the student body. LGBT students would benefit from hisplatform’s emphasis on community, he said.

But Fong, current ASG student services vice president, said NUdraws its strength from diverse groups. Having friends from variedbackgrounds would help him gauge student opinion. He talked about aproposed LGBT resource center, an idea Kagel also supports.

Blake said students can never be sure how a candidate wouldrepresent a certain group and would have to be confident the personelected would serve all groups well. Race also should not come intoplay when deciding if a candidate could represent the student body,he said.

“A lot of people think I’m just a black candidate and I’m justhere to serve the black community,” Blake said. “But if you look atmy resume, you’ll see that couldn’t be further from the truth.”

Candidates applauded their opponents’ speeches and ideas. ForKagel and Fong, this meant identifying one another as the ASGmember they most admired. In the 2002 elections, Kagel and Fongwere pitted against each other in the race for academic vicepresident.

Weinberg freshman Amika Porwal said she was surprised morestudents were not at the debate but said she was happy to learnmore about the candidates.

“The candidates themselves all were impressive,” Porwal said. “Ithought there would be a clear leader and there clearlywasn’t.”

Before the presidential debate, Tolles spoke about redefiningthe executive vice president position by increasing communicationbetween student groups and helping B-status student groups, who donot receive funds from the Student Activities Fee, take “babysteps” toward becoming funded groups by receiving limited, trialfunding. He is unopposed.

Following Thursday night’s debate, the Progressive Allianceannounced its endorsements. In its second year of endorsingcandidates, the alliance of student groups, which held debatesTuesday and Thursday nights, chose to endorse Tolles for executivevice president, Prajwal Ciryam for academic vice president and AdamForsyth for student services vice president.

The alliance hesitantly endorsed Kagel for president, notingconcerns about “vague ideas in her platform” and questions aboutwhether she would give progressive issues a high priority.

Still, Kagel said she was pleased with the alliance’sendorsement.

“It’s always important to have student groups speak their mindin these elections,” she said. “I hope I can live up to theirexpectations.”

The alliance includes Northwestern Opposing War and Racism,Women’s Coalition, Rainbow Alliance, Justice for All, AmnestyInternational and Students for Environmental and EcologicalDevelopment.

ASG’s Judicial Board also ruled Thursday on penalties forelection guidelines violations, said Chief Justice MitchHolzrichter.

Fong and Tolles each lost five points for failing to check inwith the ASG office once during the week. Ahmed lost five pointsfor using an unapproved poster during a publicity stunt.

Holzrichter, also an advertising manager for Students PublishingCo., which publishes The Daily, said the Judicial Board followedthe recommendations of the Election Commission.

“Election guidelines spell out most of the fines,” saidHolzrichter, a Weinberg sophomore. “These were pretty clearly openand shut cases.”

The next opportunity for students to watch the candidates speakwill be at Sunday’s 2 p.m. debate sponsored by the Coalition ofColor debate in Harris Hall, room 107. The coalition comprises FMO,Alianza, Muslim-cultural Students Association, Asian AmericanAdvisory Board and the South Asian Students Alliance.