On Sunday, February 11th, the new Associated Student Government co-presidents were announced. Sophomores Ty’Shea Woods and Caleb Snead won the election with 59.6% of the vote, bringing a 679% increase in voters from last year’s record- low turnout. Runners-up Nicole Aguilar-Medina and Anna Alava received 36.7% of the vote.
Although new to this role, Woods and Snead are no strangers to ASG.
CALEB SNEAD: “ I started as the Quest Plus Senator by chance, really. And from there, I just got involved with Senate. And then I really began to understand the, you know, inner-workings of ASG and then I really got drawn to finance. After some time I was appointed as a Deputy Chair of Finance, then Acting Chair of Finance, and then that was the role I had occupied for a year.”
TY’SHEA WOODS: “ I’ve been like a student government kid since middle school. So when I came to campus, I was like, let me find the government and let me join it.
So the easiest way to do that was through senatorship. So I was a Weinberg senator at first. And then within the Senate, there was a position called the school Senator Whips. I also have served on the election commission, and then I currently serve as the Co-Executive Officer of Justice and Inclusion, so both in the Cabinet, and I also run the Justice League Committee.”
While it is clear that Woods and Snead have plenty of experience to qualify them for the presidential role, why run for higher office? And, why run together?
SNEAD: “We decided to run as co-presidents, one because of us just working together outside of ASG, Ty and I are like really, really good friends. So it’s really rare to meet someone who thinks the way that we do sees the world the way that we do is as committed as we are- Um, so we aligned in that capacity, but also is really in an ideological sort of alignment as well. Um, we just really enjoyed seeing the impact we had on students and their ability to engage in their most authentic capacity. We love the warmth that came from students when they sort of experienced the impact and the work that we contributed ourselves to. So, that and expanding that sort of involvement is really, you know, part of why we ran for co-president.”
Woods and Snead led a major campaign to get elected to the role, which included meeting with several student organizations in order to gain perspective and knowledge. These meetings led to endorsements from some of Northwestern’s largest organizations such as FMO, Mayfest, and A&O.
WOODS: “A key thing for us was developing our platform that directly reflected the student voice. So how, you know, better to do that than meeting with the students who are in these positions leading these groups on campus, so that was really important and crucial for us. And then once we met with student groups and further developed our platform, it was really just like, getting that out there, you know, conveying what we’re already working on in our current roles, how that translates to this next level of leadership in the co presidency, really just spreading our message, spreading warmth and really empowering students to like get more invested in ASG, which is, you know, showing them how being invested in ASG gives them agency over their Northwestern experience.”
Woods and Snead plan to be open-door resources to all student groups on campus. They especially look forward to centering those that cater to BIPOC and FGLI identities. Similarly, the co-presidents plan on making ASG resources more accessible to student groups that may not even know these resources exist for them.
WOODS: “What student in the middle of winter quarter is going to sit down and read a 20 page, you know, report? So, they were telling us, like, maybe using social media more and just integrating, like, these smaller bite-size level, but like still important and impactful, methods of receiving information and like that kind of shifted my perspective of like marketing of ASG as a whole, just really meeting students where they are and bringing it directly to them.”
The history of Black student body presidents at Northwestern dates back to Eva Jefferson Patterson in 1970, with the last Black ASG president being in 2022 with junior Jason Hegelmeyer. However, between those years there were several large gaps between Black ASG presidents. For Snead and Woods, being elected as co-presidents means being able to represent the voices in the Black community that have gone unheard for too long.
SNEAD: “So my, like, one of my best friends, Malik, says that marginality breeds perspective, it really, really speaks volumes. And so, um, what it means to be Black as co presidents is being able to give voice to a lot of the things that often fall through the cracks, and being able to understand the true impact of institutional processes in ways that people within leadership within administration may not be privy to, simply because of not holding and not occupying the identities in the many ways that they’re affected by them.”
Snead and Woods will step into their roles as co-presidents during week 6 of Spring Quarter. Until then, the co-presidents are emphasizing an open-door policy for students groups at Northwestern.
WOODS: “So we’re really making sure that we’re intentional about, like, not even just like meeting with student groups, but showing up in spaces showing that we do like we care about y’all. We want to be in your spaces. We want to know what it’s like to be you.”
For WNUR News, I’m Jessica Watts.
