Haley Hinkle, Noah Star announce campaigns for Northwestern ASG president
March 31, 2015
Medill junior Haley Hinkle and Weinberg junior Noah Star announced their campaigns for Associated Student Government president Tuesday night, formally beginning the nine-day campaign period before voting opens April 9.
Hinkle’s executive vice presidential nominee is SESP junior Chris Harlow and Star’s running mate is McCormick junior Christina Kim.
Hinkle currently serves as ASG’s director for transportation and campus safety. Star just finished his third quarter as Speaker of the Senate.
Hinkle said her campaign, whose slogan is “Build Up,” will focus on student wellness, inclusive community and student groups.
“We’ve already invested a lot of time in these things,” she said. “We know that gives us the tools to hit the ground running on Day One and that there’s much less of a learning curve.”
She added a “differentiating factor” for her ticket is her and Harlow’s experience.
Hinkle, an ASG member since her first quarter as a Northwestern freshman, oversaw ASG’s “It’s On Us” campaign and the expansion of NU’s shuttle system.
Harlow, ASG’s vice president for student life, most recently spearheaded ASG’s mental wellness campaign, organizing end-of-quarter therapy dogs and coordinating with groups including NU Active Minds and NUListens.
Hinkle and Harlow spent much of Winter Quarter meeting with students “in as many different communities as possible,” Harlow said.
“We averaged 12 groups per week and over 200 hours of conversations with students,” Harlow said. “And that might be one-on-one with executive boards, that might be holding small focus groups.”
Star balked at the suggestion that his ticket is less experienced, pointing to his three quarters as Speaker of the Senate and his leadership experience outside of ASG. He is former vice president of Delta Tau Delta fraternity and a former Wildcat Welcome peer adviser.
During his speakership, Star said he tried to make Senate “more democratic.” He oversaw an increase in advocacy groups introducing legislation, including the controversial Northwestern Divest resolution that passed in February.
“I’ve tried to inject more externally-focused legislation into Senate,” Star said. “ASG can sometimes lose track of how it is accountable to the students that it’s representing.”
To that end, Star’s campaign, whose slogan is “Listen then Lead,” will focus on keeping ASG responsive to students’ wants and needs. Star and Kim have also been meeting with students, which they began in late February.
Kim, ASG’s vice president for services, helped develop CourseDJ, a website that allows students to plan class schedules using NU course data.
Weinberg senior Dana Leinbach, ASG’s election commissioner, said the candidates will participate in a debate at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Fisk Hall. Harlow and Kim will debate for the first hour, and Hinkle and Star will square off from 9 to 10 p.m.
Clarification: This article was updated April 1 at 12:22 a.m. to clarify the main points of Hinkle and Harlow’s campaign.
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