Student Association Presidential Candidate Kelly Marie McDonald wants to become president to help make the world one “that I want to live in and leave to future generations.”

In a report to The Northern Star, McDonald wrote, “I want a world, a nation, a community, that I can take pride in because I am responsible for a clean environment, legislation protecting people from discrimination and having enough food and shelter available for people.”

She emphasized taking individual action and looking for ways to help solve the world’s ills and achieve peace. “The number of ways to make a difference is astounding,” McDonald said. “People need to feel they have the power to make changes.”

However, she said she will also concentrate on problems here at NIU.

As president, McDonald said her goals are to “incorporate a broad range of viewpoints” along with keeping internal SA problems to a minimum and taking strong stands on student issues.

“I want the students of Northern Illinois University to leave here informed on issues, as well as having an education from the classroom,” she wrote.

McDonald also encouraged in her report that people tolerate differences while being unified at the same time.

“Unity has become a cliche, but it is the best word to describe what people should be working toward,” McDonald wrote.

She said unity included “the earth and her creatures as well as among ourselves.”

However, she said “acceptance of each other in all of our wonderful differences is also the only way for us to achieve peace.”

McDonald has received endorsements from NIU’s Community for Peace, the Women’s Alliance and the Gay/Lesbian Union.

She is a member of the Women’s Alliance and the Community for Peace along with being an SA senator and a volunteer for Safe Passage, a shelter for victims of domestic violence.

McDonald said working for these groups meant that she did not have enough time to campaign, but she said she hopes that people will appreciate her consistent work on student issues.

“I have done things which I felt was the right thing to do for me,” said McDonald about her low-intensity campaign.

She said she has avoided talking too much about her opponent, SA Senate Speaker Preston Came, because she said, “I think if you are going to dig a hole, you should dig it yourself.”