By Elise Foley The Daily Northwestern

Five candidates are running for four positions in the campus-wide ASG elections scheduled for April 10.

The Associated Student Government election commission announced the candidates for ASG president, executive vice president, student services vice president and academic vice president Friday.

Weinberg junior Julian Hill and SESP junior Jonathan Webber are running for ASG president.

Both have previous experience with ASG. Hill said he serves on behalf of ASG on the Library and Admissions / Financial Aid committees, while Webber recently finished his term as speaker of the Senate.

Outgoing president Jay Schumacher, a Communication senior, said he was “ecstatic” about the presidential candidates this year.

“The presidential race is contested, so that’s great,” said Schumacher, who ran unopposed last year. “Both candidates bring a unique perspective, and it’s exciting to choose from such good candidates.”

The other three races are uncontested.

Weinberg sophomore Matt Bogusz, an Interfraternity Council senator, is running for executive vice president.

Weinberg sophomore Nate West, a Residential Hall Association senator,is seeking the position of student services vice president.

McCormick junior Anna Xu, a member of the Academic Committee, is the lone candidate for academic vice president.

Schumacher said he has high hopes for the uncontested races.

“It’s always good to have contested races because it raises the level of debate,” Schumacher said. “But I think the people that would do the best job are the ones running – they probably would have won anyway.”

Applications, which required a petition with at least 200 student signatures, were due Friday.

The applications were supposed to be available March 26, but were not sent out on the ASG listserv until the next day. There was also confusion as to when a link to the applications appeared on HereAndNow, with some saying it did not appear for several days and others saying it disappeared when ASG put up a link to NU Link, the new Web site that combines features from student services Plan-it-Purple and HereAndNow.

Election commissioner Eric Parker said a link to the applications appeared on HereAndNow on March 27, and there was a link to them on NU Link as well. The election committee did not meet until March 25, which caused the delay.

No extensions were given due to the delay.

“No one requested an extension, and as far as I know, no one else has even tried to get signatures,” said Parker, a Weinberg junior. “I would have liked to have contested races, but that’s not the way it happened.”

Extensions can’t be given because it isn’t built into the guidelines, Bogusz said.

“I’m disappointed that no one is running in any of the three elections,” Bogusz said. “A majority of work gets done in these committees, and it’s embarrassing for ASG.

“Democracy is good, choice good, and Northwestern deserves a choice in who leads them,” Bogusz said.

A lack of publicity or apathy toward ASG could have caused the lack of contested races, Parker said.

“Many students may not put much faith in ASG anymore, which could lead to having only one candidate in each race.

“(ASG members) have information on ASG and many (other) people don’t,” Parker said. “That could be an issue with the senators or a whole host of other problems. I don’t know.”

Election campaigns officially began at 12:01 a.m. today, Parker said.

Debates will be held for academic vice president and student services vice president at 7 p.m.Tuesday in Norris University Center.

Debates will be held at 8 p.m. Thursday for president and executive vice president.

Anoop Kar, a Weinberg senior, said he was unaware that the candidates were announced last week but that he planned to vote.

“I think it’s a duty,” Kar said. “Even though it won’t affect me, it will affect the university.”

Reach Elise Foley at [email protected].