Matt Bellassai does not have to worry about defeating an actual opponent in the race for Associated Student Government student life director. Instead, his concern is outperforming “No Confidence.”
“I think ‘No Confidence’ has made good showings in the past,” the Weinberg freshman said. “My main goal is to get my name out there to let everybody know who I am.”
The ASG student life director race was not originally going to be a one-man show. Visraant Iyer, a Weinberg freshman, had planned to run but said he was forced to bow out of the race due to a time conflict.
“That’s not stopping me from campaigning,” Bellassai said. “We’re able to experiment with certain ideas that we might not have been able to do otherwise, and I think they’re really cool.”
Bellassai’s campaign modeled its Web site after www.fmylife.com, which allows anonymous visitors to make posts about humorous personal traumas, he said. As of Thursday, Bellassai’s site had not launched; he said it is expected to go public soon.
“We want to hear everybody’s story,” Bellassai said. “We can take those, see what’s really bugging people at Northwestern, and maybe turn those into things that we can change.”
Bellassai is already involved in ASG as a senator and member of several committees, including the ASG Student Life Committee he would head if elected. Current Student Life Director Nate Perkins, a McCormick junior, said he has “been impressed on every level” with Bellassai’s involvement in ASG.
Some of Bellassai’s ideas include digitizing the campus mail system, expanding the roommate survey for incoming freshmen and creating a student-produced, on-campus housing brochure.
Benjamin Goldberg, one of Bellassai’s campaign managers, said the candidate “always has a smile on his face” and really wants to give back to the NU community.
“He’s a really hard worker,” the Weinberg freshman said. “His heart is in the right place. A lot of people say that, but for him I think it’s true.”
Originally from Alsip, Ill., Bellassai is the first generation of his family to go to college and chose NU as his first choice, he said.
“I love the people here,” Bellassai said. “I want to improve student life so that people can appreciate Northwestern as much as I do. I want people to be happy here.”
