Last night, Claire Lew and Hiro Kawashima won another highly contentious election. Just like last year, Associated Student Government has a lot of attention and a lot of possibilities in front of it-if it uses its political capital right.
ASG has made a lot of positive strides in the last year. GPS trackers in shuttles. Increasing wireless access on campus. Creating the Chicago Express. Getting the Apple Store in Norris.
But almost anyone would tell you that the organization has a long way to go.
The last two ASG presidents have been very different. Neal Sales-Griffin focused on the internal mechanics of ASG and on presenting a strong public face. Where he sometimes faltered, though, was on substantive policy. Mike McGee, on the other hand, created tangible results but ASG’s public image and organizational structure has suffered. Four senate seats remain unfilled. One ASG committee has met only once in the last quarter. As part of their platform, Lew and Kawashima said that the latter would focus his managerial skills on fixing these problems. It is essential that the staffing concerns are solved, that ASG becomes more efficient, and that committees meet as often as is needed. Likewise, Lew should use her experience as vice president of public relations to continue to talk to students, and to use what she learns from them to push for results. For instance, though Lew has said alcohol amnesty is not on the horizon, it is important that she continue lobbying the administration for a more progressive alcohol policy to make students safer.
In terms of working for students, it is important that Lew and Kawashima push student initiatives as part of University President Morton O. Schapiro’s capital campaign. Some of this money will go to student life-it is important that it goes to things students want. This requires research and evidence-both anecdotal and scientific. ASG has to talk to students face-to-face to get specific ideas and use polling to get numbers to present to the administration. Initiatives like the new student center-something Lew has been very involved in-only come from working with the entire campus to find out what is in demand.
But the capital campaign is not the only place where ASG needs to have better communications; the organization could do a much better job of representing themselves to their constituents. A lot of students say they think ASG doesn’t do anything; The Daily does not think that’s true. What is true is that the organization does not do a good job of telling students what is it does. Having a Web site is great, but increased ASG presence at dorm munchies, firesides and other student gatherings would go much further. Beyond communication on campus, ASG must re-establish the strong relationship it once had with the City of Evanston. Town-gown relations is most often thought of as something between the administration and the city, but student leaders, who are less entrenched than administrators, can also help improve the situation.
The Daily had high hopes for Lew and Kawashima-that’s why we endorsed them earlier this week. They have one year to do whatever they can to help make life better for students on NU’s campus-if they live up to their potential, it shouldn’t be hard.
