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Speaker 1 00:00:09 On Tuesday, April 13th, associated student government presidential and vice presidential candidates took part in their first live debate moderated by the Northwestern news network and the daily Northwestern candidates had a chance to discuss issues such as Greek life, campus workers and ASG transparency, given 75 seconds to answer questions, uninterrupted and 30 for a follow up presidential candidate in Weinberg junior, David gro was the first to give his opening remarks.
Speaker 2 00:00:38 Um, if you notice our entire, um, slate of ideas that we have coming up is all ideas that we heard from fellow students on campus. We did not come up with any of these all on our own. Um, in fact, I would say that our campaign is unique in that it's not our campaign so much, is that it's the student population campaign. Um, that is really what we're trying to focus on for this entire run. Uh, and that's what we're gonna try and focus on tonight. So we hope that you'll see that, um, and it'll make the students happy
Speaker 1 00:01:08 Grow currently serves as the college Republican Senator and sits on the finance committee, current chair of ASGs campus, life committee, presidential candidate, and Weinberg junior Jason Hael Meer followed up with his opening remarks.
Speaker 3 00:01:21 Yeah, Donna and I have been in ASG since our freshman year from FMO Senator to SESE Senator to election commissioner chair, to chair of campus life, to chief of staff. We know the ins and outs of ASG, cuz we've been in ag. We know how it works and we know how to talk to admin. We have rapport of admin. We know what it takes to get things done in a SG. We, this entire campaign pro process, we've met with student groups to figure out what they need and what they want. And we know that with our experience in admin and talking to them and knowing how to make processes things happen in ASG, we know what's right for the students,
Speaker 1 00:01:55 Vice presidential candidate and Weinberg sophomore Camilla sense kicked off the first round of questions regarding realistic campaign promises is although the sense is not held in ASG position in the past, she promises to always listen to students, touching upon concerns of wifi, connectivity, and media transparency for our ASG meetings.
Speaker 4 00:02:15 We can't promise any policy, right. But the thing that I will promise and that David and I will promise is that we are going to listen to the students. Um, just today we book to, uh, we pulled over 400 students, um, about what they wanted to see on campus and added issues, specific policy issues to our platform. Um, so yeah, I think that's what we can, we can hope to bring David. Yeah,
Speaker 1 00:02:37 No information is available to w Nur news to verify the validity of those results. But Twitter was ABL that night commentating on their own Northwestern experiences, Weinberg student Natalia Camino tweeted pulled 400 students. You mean less than 5% of the U student body. And ASGs current chief of staff Donovan. Qik a SESE sophomore and vice presidential candidate followed up,
Speaker 5 00:03:03 Uh, something that Jason and I are really excited, um, to share is that if elected, um, it is our intention to add a new spot to ASG exec board, um, to have an individual who their full-time role in ASG would be to serve as a student group liaison. That's something that we've recognized that ASG doesn't currently have. And we acknowledge is a pretty big flaw in ASG. And so by having that constant connection point, um, between ASG and all of the student groups who we work to fund and serve, um, ultimately we think that that's gonna be a key part in that. Um, and I think that our discussions with student groups
Speaker 1 00:03:37 With a population of approximate only 8,000 full-time undergraduate students on campus, the concerns of marginalized students were also brought to the forefront.
Speaker 6 00:03:46 Yeah. Thank you so much. Um, our next question is for David and Camilla, um, as folks involved in historically exclusive groups on campus, how will you handle and prioritize marginalized student concerns?
Speaker 2 00:03:58 I can definitely see how, um, people think it's people want us focus on marginalized voices and, you know, as a first generation, low income student, you know, I definitely understands those concerns. Um, a lot of the things we want to focus on is, um, doing important issues that actually change, um, something we talked to, uh, different groups about. Um, we talked to recently the Cambodian cultural awareness. Um, there's just a really small group on campus, but I think that shows our communication with them shows that we are actively trying to talk to groups that, um, many people may not hear about many people might not focus about even though. So cuz even if they're a small population on campus, we still matter. Um, they still matter and we really care about their voices.
Speaker 4 00:04:38 Yeah. And, and I just wanted to add that think at the end of the day, um, while we may be accused of doing the basics by touching on wifi, I think it's absolutely fundamental to support all voices, especially marginalized voices that we have the basics on this campus that we have mental health resources that we have connectivity across campus so we can access curriculum.
Speaker 3 00:04:57 And on the fact that like ASG historically, hasn't been listening to specifically marginalized students and I wanna first address and acknowledge that pastry has a long history on a sideline in excluding black and brown voices in a SG. And first and foremost, that's why we're margin. We're uplifting marginalized voices. As one of our core platforms, we wanna list, we wanna support SES services. We wanna get expand books for cats. We wanna install credit, no credit for students that are in hidden that are like most slightly to be affected by COVID. So our experience by reaching out to, to getting more people, um, to do ASG is by first reaching out to black and brown and marginalized voices first,
Speaker 5 00:05:31 Thank you. And to add on to that, uh, yes, data is important. Listening to students is important. Um, undoubtedly, however, when we are at a predominant white and wealthy institution like Northwestern listening only to the majority of voices on campus ultimately means that we're not listening to minority, um, voices on campus. And that does need to be a prioritization of ASG of student leaders and of uh, Northwestern administration. So
Speaker 1 00:06:03 In the wake of student activist groups, such as fossil free NNU and NNU community, not cops organizing on campus in recent months, the candidates also stand to represent the larger Northwestern community. When president elect Rebecca blank of the initially makes a transition wrapping up the night, both sets of candidates then discussed how their personal identities would shape their term. If elected,
Speaker 3 00:06:26 I mean, I've been a part of, I mean FMO Ali, uh, planned parenthood. All of those experiences are part of my entities that shaped my policy and I that's reflected in our platform. We care about marginalized students. We want SES expanded, we've talked to quest, we've talked to Rebo, we've talked to queer students, we've talked to students on campus and we've talked to marginalized students. Wifi connectivity is important, but making sure students can afford books for next quarter is also probably important. Making sure students aren't afraid to go to class without getting COVID and making sure they have the protective PPE that they need for is also probably important. And that also is outlined in our platform. We, I I'm the product of my experiences and our platform is that too
Speaker 5 00:07:08 Terrific. What Jason said, like we are the product of our experiences. That's something, um, that we believe is very important and stands true for every single individual. Um, with that, uh, I personally don't have any experience in any explicitly outward like political student organizations on campus. A priority of mine has more so been about educating myself. Um, but also about focusing on student advocacy, um, and things of that nature, working with administration rather than discussing United States or global politics, um, in a classroom.
Speaker 2 00:07:40 Great. David and Camilla. Yeah. I mean, yeah, as a, uh, poly sci student and as somebody who is the Republican, uh, group Senator, um, I've had, uh, political affiliations in the past. Um, but those do not concern the campaign for me at this point. Um, because as I said before, and I will say continuously campaign is not about injecting my private, um, ideological reasoning onto the campus. Um,
Speaker 4 00:08:06 I've been on as a poly sci student as well. I've been on both sides of the aisle in high school and in college. Um, right now I'm not in any political organizations. I think that what will contribute most to my time, uh, hopefully in ASG will be, um, my experience as a Latinx woman on campus, uh, which is certainly a unique one, especially with my involvement in Greek life. Um, I think it gives me a very unique position, um,
Speaker 1 00:08:30 Voting for the ASG presidential election ends tonight at 7:00 PM with results announced at seven 30 more information available on the ASG website. This is Maria Jima argon, w N U R news.
