Though Scott Burton has not been directly involved with Associated Student Government, the debate team captain and former Marine has concrete reasons for entering the presidential race.

“It’s basically to give back to the Northwestern community,” the Weinberg junior said. “I’ve spoken to a lot of people on ASG and I think that my experience can really change things for the better.”

Whereas other candidates with a lack of ASG experience may feel the temptation to cast freshness as a positive characteristic, Burton is careful not to overstate his case.

“It’s certainly not going to help; I definitely have a lot to learn, but I think it will work to my advantage because I’m curious about it,” Burton said. “I’m really going to be investigating what things are.”

Also absent from Burton’s campaign are the wide-ranging list of policy proposals and the broad ASG reform agenda of many of his competitors. Instead, his Web site lists four main issues: Safety, Sustainability, Community and ASG.

Burton’s agenda in the latter categories largely consists of integrating the Greek community into the activities of ASG, he said.

“I’m not in a frat myself, but I have many friends that are,” Burton said. “I’d like to work with them to incorporate them more into the Northwestern community.”

Burton is well-suited to bringing a wide spectrum of people together, said Katie Coleman, his campaign manager, who first met Burton as captain of her mock trial team.

“We have people from political science, biology, psychology … all types of majors,” the Weinberg senior said. “So he’s used to leading a small, executive board-type setting.”

Burton’s friendly nature would play well to the large spectrum of voters who have previously sat out ASG elections, Coleman said.

“We saw that only 3,000 people voted in last year’s election, and we think that we can increase that,” she said. “The more people that Scott meets, the better he’s going to come off.”

– MICHAEL GSOVSKI