We were fortunate enough to serve as the past two student body presidents at Northwestern. Even though we love NU, we know that there are areas that need to be improved.
Before her first week of classes were over, Claire Lew had already won a position as Allison Hall ASG senator. In that role, she pushed for more accountability by requiring senators to send out weekly e-mails to their constituents. As a member of the ASG academic committee, Claire helped lobby for wireless in dorms and created the idea for an academic advising fair. By Spring Quarter, Claire successfully ran Neal’s campaign for ASG President and became ASG Treasurer. She worked with Neal to implement a number of ASG reforms including: creating the position of vice president, writing a simplified ASG operations manual and implementing committee applications to get passionate students on all ASG committees.
During the rest of her time at Northwestern, Claire started the oNe Northwestern initiative that has engaged more than 2,000 students in a dialogue about NU community. Claire also worked with us on President Schapiro’s Inaugural committee to bring A&O on board to produce the John Legend concert. As VP of Public Relations, Claire made ASG more transparent by creating quarterly and annual reports to the student body, as well as working with Student Affairs to send out a quarterly e-mail to all 8,000+ undergraduate students. She is currently redesigning NULink, which will radically change how students’ view and access vital information.
These results only begin to demonstrate Claire’s contribution to the Northwestern community. We can’t even count the number of times we’ve spent watching the sun rise with Claire as we typed away on our computers in the ASG office. Claire has never stopped pushing both of us to be better at what we do, not only in our positions, but as people. We’ve seen her as a true force in ASG, on the executive board she has never been afraid to disagree and stand for what she believes.
In weekly meetings with the vice president of student affairs and quarterly meetings with the Board of Trustees she has held true and firm on her responsibility to represent NU students. We reckon they take what she has to say seriously and with esteem.
Claire understands working with administrators to make change on campus because she has played an active role in making it happen. She crafted legislation to make ASG more effective and efficient. She labored for hours crafting the New Student Center Proposal unveiled last quarter. And she presented feedback on the Student Affairs’ Five-Year Strategic Plan to senior administrators.
Claire has made it her purpose and passion to serve and support the Northwestern student body. She exemplifies the idea that we are oNe Northwestern, a community of unique and eclectic people. She has inspired us to believe that through hard work, we can create a better experience at Northwestern year after year.
– Mike McGeeCommunication SeniorCurrent ASG president
– Neal Sales-GriffInSESP ’09 Former ASG president
