As their supporters cheered and video cameras recorded their every word, the presidential candidates stood up and swore by a platform of change. Some ran on experience while others as outsiders challenging a broken system. They discussed issues ranging from improving security to engaging young voters.
But the cameras belonged to the Northwestern News Network, the venue was McCormick Auditorium, and only 50 or so students showed up Thursday night at the ASG debate. There, candidates for executive vice president and president answered questions about campus apathy, student groups and the budget ahead of Tuesday’s vote.
Following sophomore Vikram Karandikar, the only contender for executive vice president, the five presidential candidates took the stage to answer questions. Sophomore Luke Adams and juniors Scott Burton, Mark Crain, Neal Sales-Griffin and Blake Yocom took questions from students online and from a panel of student journalists.
It was not so much a debate as a platform exposition, as candidates took the floor in turns and did not face rebuttals. The competitors agreed that ASG is ineffective and does not sufficiently engage students. The candidates did differ in their ideas.
Crain said student engagement needs to drive ASG. “This not just a student government, it’s a student alliance. It’s not just another student group, it’s your voice.”
Crain proposed creating an Off-Campus Housing Office and sending letters from ASG to incoming freshmen to engage them sooner.
Sales-Griffin said that internal ASG reform, through the creation of a review committee, would be the key to repairing the relationship between the student government and the students.
“To re-evaluate ourselves is very important,” he said. This committee would include students across campus “to review the very purpose and structure of our associate student government.”
Yocom disagreed.
“We can continue to talk from an ASG perspective,” Yocom said. “But until we start speaking from a student perspective, ASG will never be effective.”
For Adams, the perceived student apathy is not quite what it seems.
“I look on Facebook and I see petitions for the U-Pass, for the intercampus shuttles. The students, they’re really not all that apathetic,” he said. “And I don’t think the student government is all that apathetic, because they are clearly listening to the students. But I think where everything slows down is when we try to push those things to the administration.”
Adams pledged not to take no from the Northwestern administration. He also argued for a “concierge,” a person who would talk to students on campus and look at networking sites to find out what students really are expecting.
Burton particularly emphasized the issue of security, in the light of recent events.
“There are simple things we can do,” he said. “Right now, as we speak, the light at the bus stop right at the Arch is not working.”
He also advocated a weekend intercampus shuttle service, and encouraged the university to “make commitments to environmentally sound solutions.”
Yocom also made a point of highlighting on-campus safety, but also tackled town-gown relations. For Yocom, getting local businesses to accept WildCARDs “would bring Evanston back into the Northwestern culture.”
All of the candidates agreed on the necessity of keeping ASG accessible to students.
“It’s not just about the president,” Sales-Griffin said. “It’s not all about his face, it’s about your face, our face. It’s the most important thing that we can do.”
Vice presidential candidate Karandikar took the stage before the presidential contenders. His main goal is increasing funding of B-status groups to one percent, from 0.5 percent.
“I think it’s a humbling experience to be able to make decisions about funding that will ultimately help hundreds of students,” he said.
Karandikar said it was too early to determine whether increased student-group funding would impact the Student Activities Fee. He hoped the additional funding for B-status groups would come from the budget for A-status groups.
Karandikar also wants to improve relations between the executive committee and other ASG committees, he said.
“As an exec board member, I think my biggest concern would be, ‘How disconnected is the executive committee from other committees?’”