If not for a campus tour on an unseasonably nice day, Associated Student Government presidential candidate Claire Lew might be a Minnesota Golden Gopher.
“I was walking through The Arch underneath all the trees in front of (University Hall) and was like, ‘I could go here. I could see myself here,'” the SESP junior said.
Lew, a Minnesota native, said she was deciding between Northwestern and the University of Minnesota.
“I was very skeptical about coming here,” she said. “I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’ll like the people. I don’t know what the atmosphere is going to be like. I want to make sure I get a holistic college experience.’ But I came and it just clicked.”
Now Lew said she “absolutely loves” NU and she is running for ASG president because she wants to see the University “improved in any way possible.”
“Every single year I always ask myself, ‘What’s the greatest contribution I can make?'” she said. “This year, that happened to be president.”
A self-proclaimed lover of food, the TV show “Lost” and the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves, Lew jumped head-first into the ASG life, successfully running for Allison Hall senator Fall Quarter of her freshman year.
Despite warnings from her Community Assistant about ASG being for “d**chebags” and a “terrible” and “bureaucratic” first ASG Senate meeting, Lew said she stuck with it, partly because it is “the only representative body on campus.”
Lew has served as treasurer and most recently as vice president of the public relations committee for ASG and said she helped found the oNe Northwestern campaign. She said through these endeavors she has talked with a lot of students about their concerns or lack thereof.
“‘Why should I care?’ I would say that’s the most common question,” she said. “I tell people that hopefully they should care because they’re here for four years at Northwestern. If you ever see a problem, ever see a pain or have a concern about anything, what do you do with that? ASG … should really be the vehicle for you to make the changes and improvements at this school.”
Mike McGee, the outgoing ASG president, said he will endorse Lew for his current position. Lew worked on McGee’s campaign in the previous election, and the Communication senior said he has known her for almost three years.
“The key is not just her experience being in ASG and working with students … it’s being able to understand how ASG works,” he said. “She’s done it all in the last three years.”
He said presidential candidate Alessio Manti and his running mate, Adam Thompson-Harvey, “have all these great ideas. Problem is we’re already doing things that they say they want done.” McGee specifically referenced cell phone reception, shuttles and lobbying the NU administration as some of the issues ASG is already addressing.
Lew said she worked with Manti on ASG’s Winter Campaign last year.
“We’re friendly,” she said. “The way I look at elections is that I don’t take any of this personally … People should vote for me if they believe that the Northwestern experience can be better. If they believe in realistic solutions as opposed to promises.”
Matthew Bellassai, ASG student life vice president, said he’s helping Lew with her campaign, though he said he also knows her from outside ASG meetings and that she is a “terrible dancer.”
“She comes off a little strong, but she is the kind of person you’d want to go out and have fun with, too,” the Medill sophomore said. “That level of personality people don’t see … when you’re around her a lot, you see the less serious side and the fun and engaging side.”
Though Lew said some issues are particularly important to her, including improving meal plans and getting a student representative on the Board of Trustees, she said if she wins the election she’ll first figure out what students want.
“To be honest, (running mate Hiro Kawashima) and I are only two people out of 8,000 people,” she said. “We don’t really know for sure what students want us to work on. If we get elected, we’ll let students decide what’s most important to work on.”[email protected]
