Muhammad Safdari is not letting the lack of an opponent for Associated Student Government academic director prevent him from chalking his campaign’s logo, featuring his name framed by stars, all across campus, the Weinberg junior said.
Safdari, who has served on the ASG Academic Committee for the past year, said he believes getting his name out is necessary to running a well-organized campaign.
The primary goal of the campaign is to gain a large margin of victory to show the administration that students support Safdari’s policies, said Safdari’s campaign strategist Jeff Cao, a Weinberg junior.
The candidate’s campaign platform offers “something for everyone,” Safdari said. He will work to promote the interests of student groups, such as the Muslim-cultural Students Association, Students for Ecological and Environmental Development and the American Sign Language Club, which are all seeking to create new classes and academic programs at Northwestern, he said.
The American Sign Language Club’s academic committee chairwoman, Tania Karas, said Safdari has been working with the group to develop sign language classes at NU ever since he approached them a few weeks ago.
“He has detailed plans to help us get through the roadblocks of finding funding and teachers,” the Medill sophomore said. “He has helped us feel that this could become a reality.”
This collaboration with student groups will be useful in helping the academic committee achieve the goals outlined in Safdari’s platform, Cao said.
“ASG is always asking the administration for things,” he said. “They aren’t always taken seriously.”
Safdari said he thinks such collaboration proves student groups’ interests appeal to a wide range of students, and new programs will not become the “pet projects” of just one student group.
In addition to expanding course offerings, Safdari said he hopes to create new career-oriented events, including a winter internship fair and a series of alumni dorm firesides. He also has plans to make Blackboard better by allowing students in any section of the same course to access each other’s materials, he said.
Compared to Mike McGee’s actions as ASG academic director the past year, Safdari’s work will focus less specifically on academic resources for students, he said.
“(The Academic Committee) is not that restrictive,” Safdari said. “It can do a lot if it wants.”
