Former Associated Student Government President Mike McGee is “literally crazy,” said current President Claire Lew.
“He talks to himself out loud around other people,” the SESP junior said. “But in a serious sense, he’s crazy in terms of his commitment to the school, never being jaded about the possibilities of what Northwestern could be.”
The Communication senior will graduate June 18, leaving a more indelible mark on NU than many students: The former ASG president’s term was marked by collaboration with new University President Morton O. Schapiro and the achievement of many of his platform’s goals.
Described by his co-workers as a dedicated leader, McGee spent his time at NU working for the student body. When he lived in a suite with former Academic Vice President Muhammad Safdari freshman year, the two never planned to get involved in ASG.
Come spring, McGee became interested in student government when a fellow resident-the ASG senator for his district-recommended he run for a position on a committee.
Initially, McGee, who friends described as competitive, said he didn’t want to run.
“I was scared that I wouldn’t win,” he said. “I didn’t like to lose. … That upcoming Wednesday, I came into the Senate and ran for the position and won, miraculously. Beat out an incumbent who was on there for a couple years, so it was a big shocker even way back then, for that small spot.
“From there, I guess the rest is history. That was the first step.”BEGINNINGS
McGee, a Freeport, Ill., native, is the older of two children. His mother, Teresa Williams, said she was “happy and surprised” when he was accepted to NU.
“When he was a little boy, I couldn’t have imagined it,” she said. “But as he grew up, I could see how something like that could happen to him.”
Now the former ASG president is preparing to graduate, and McGee said his time at NU has transformed him.
Williams said she wasn’t expecting her son to have such an impact on NU. The work he has put into the school gives her pride, she said.
“I never in my wildest dreams could’ve imagined the passion and the drive that Mike has shown since he arrived at Northwestern,” she said. “As soon as he walked on campus, he got involved immediately, and that’s what I’m most proud of.”
There was no exact moment, McGee said, when he knew he wanted to serve, but it’s an instinct that has driven his NU experience. McGee was involved in For Members Only, Dance Marathon and residential government at the beginning of his freshman year, since serving others “came naturally.”
Service was instilled in McGee from the beginning. It’s a family value, Williams said.
“We do serve our community and serve one another, and I believe in volunteering and I believe in giving back,” she said. “We might not have a lot, but what we have is more than what other people have and I told them that.”
Though he wasn’t a member of student government in high school, McGee said he had strong relationships with administrators but never set out to apply those skills in college-it just happened.
“I knew counselors, knew principals. I did a lot of that naturally,” he said. “That transitioned to come to Northwestern. It wasn’t something that was intentional. It was something that was unlocked at certain moments, like when I joined ASG: that came back to me.”
McGee has told The Daily that Dean of Students Burgwell Howard is a friend. He said he and Schapiro rarely had to set up times to meet in advance-they would just run into each other at various meetings and events and catch up then.
“Mike thinks that in order to get anything done, you have to form a relationship,” Williams said. “Mike said, ‘If you give people respect, you’ll get it, and you have to be able to work with everyone.’ I’d like to say that I taught him that, but some of that stuff you just have to learn and witness. I don’t know how it came about, but I’m certainly glad it did.”ACHIEVEMENTS
McGee is the first to admit he spent much of his time at NU in Norris University Center. His Facebook biography gets straight to the point: “I live in Norris.”
His predecessor, Neal Sales-Griffin (SESP ’09), said the two made the ASG offices “our homes.” His friends and ASG co-workers described nights spent working on projects until the sun came up.
“We’d constantly be interacting for hours on end,” Sales-Griffin said. “Almost competing, you could say, for who would be leaving the latest.”
McGee won.
“Mike is the worker,” Sales-Griffin said. “Usually, he would be the only person left standing if I were leaving the ASG office at 3 or 4 in the morning.”
Co-workers described an iPad-toting McGee as an empathetic consensus-builder.In April 2008, McGee ran for academic vice president at the urging of Sales-Griffin and Lew. He said he managed to achieve all five of the goals on his platform that year, including working with administrators on increasing socioeconomic diversity at NU.
But an elected representative has more to think about than a platform, he said.
“You come in and you campaign, you say you’re going to do this. … Once you get in the position, you’re going to work on more than what you said you were,” he said. “It’s tough. If you rate (my year as AVP) by just what we put on our campaign website, we did a great job.”
After winning a runoff presidential election in spring 2009 against candidate Bill Pulte following a contentious campaign, McGee set out to achieve the goals on his platform. These included improved shuttle services, alcohol safety, off-campus resources, wireless Internet, academic technologies, diversity, sustainability, internal reforms and advancing the New Student Center Initiative.
Pulte said he would not comment on McGee’s performance, but the two remain friends.
“It was good running against him,” the Medill senior said. “I have a lot of respect for him and I think he’s a great guy.”
McGee said he was most proud of his shuttle improvements, an initiative Sales-Griffin began with a GPS system last year. He didn’t anticipate making further changes, but he said he was able to redesign and revamp the shuttle system to make it more efficient and student-friendly.
He also said increasing the Student Activity Fee, getting a sustainability coordinator and sustainability fund, forming the University alcohol safety task force and getting mobile NU applications started were among the year’s bigger accomplishments.
The University will also fund a fall event similar to this year’s inauguration-themed John Legend concert, and improved cell phone reception is finally looking like an achievable goal in the coming years, McGee said.
Following Sales-Griffin’s work on restarting the New Student Center Initiative, McGee researched and put together a proposal and website to begin seriously lobbying for a change.
“In terms of where we are (with the new student center), we’ve done a pretty good job,” he said. “If had to grade myself, it’d probably be an A. Maybe an A-minus, because I’m like that.”CHALLENGES
McGee admits he did not achieve all of his goals as president, though he felt he was successful in achieving goals on his platform. He said he wanted to put more students on University committees and better advertise those committees to the student body.
Right now, the committees aren’t well-publicized and many do not have active student representation, he said. It’s a job he said Lew will continue to work on.
“That was probably one thing I wished I had spent more time on,” he said. “We moved the ball in the right direction, but I wasn’t able to get all of that done.”
The ASG president deals with what Sales-Griffin described as a “firehose” of activities and work to manage.
Though McGee and his former vice president, Weinberg senior Tommy Smithburg, had alcohol amnesty on their platform, that goal was not achieved. Instead, the Responsible Acti
on Protocol was instituted, formalizing the University’s policy. The RAP encourages students to be responsible but does not exempt students from educational or judicial sanctions.
The students also planned to work on off-campus housing resources for students. They did not promise an office-the platform clearly stated that financial issues would likely prevent the University from instituting one.
“Once you look back on it, it’s like, of course I could have done better,” he said. “When you’re in it, you’re like, ‘I’ve got class, I’ve got to eat, I have to sleep at some point. Oh, I have these meetings. Okay, what do I choose?’ You’re not always thinking at 100 percent.”Sales-Griffin said balance is a difficult goal for every ASG president.
“There are always challenges,” he said. “There’s just so much to juggle and manage. It’s hard to have a personal life and maintain balance and do well in school. Mike experienced that struggle.”WHAT’S NEXT?
In the future, don’t expect the affable and friendly face to change too much. McGee’s ASG co-workers said he continues to be a genuine friend and a hard worker.
“In terms of work ethic and discipline, there is no one that will ever match him,” Lew said.She said his innovative ideas and empathetic leadership have left her with “big shoes to fill.”
What’s McGee up to after graduation?
“Well, first I have to graduate,” he said jokingly.
Fortunately, friend, roommate and ASG co-worker Safdari said McGee maintains his sense of humor.
“He’s the same guy inside ASG, outside ASG,” the Weinberg senior said. “He doesn’t take himself too seriously.”
This summer, McGee-designer of campaign and ASG websites-will work at the Center for Civic Engagement designing a website for the One Book One Northwestern project and “hopefully getting students more engaged.”
Beyond that, he will move to Chicago in the fall to work on an entrepreneurial venture with none other than Sales-Griffin.
“I’ll be around,” McGee said. “I’ll still be involved with Northwestern. I won’t leave completely.”[email protected]
