The Weinberg junior has had a stellar track record with Associated Student Government and NUOnlineBooks.com, 51.25 percent of the student body backing him up and a three foot tall stuffed-Stewie in his office—and his plans for Northwestern are even bigger.

Jon Webber turned 21 on April 9, a Monday. On Tuesday, April 10, he became ASG president. And on April 24, two weeks later, he gazes out of his Norris office’s northward-facing windows. The panels frame his view of the lakefill — the scene belongs in a Northwestern advertisement. Webber stretches and spins in his leather chair, fiddling his desk drawers with his feet and perusing ASG paperwork from 1992. The dry-erase board on his door reads in fresh, blue script, “Congratulations, Mr. President.” But his office looks like he’s been there for years. Because in fact, he has. Last year he served as speaker of the Senate, sharing the spacious office with the outgoing president, Jay Schumacher. So this year’s position is somewhat familiar territory. But it still has its thrills.

Congratulations on becoming ASG president. How did it feel when you heard the election results?

It was a combination of being exhausted and overwhelmed. Exhausted from the past two weeks, overwhelmed with excitement and what was to come in the next year, but more than anything it was just appreciation. If I would have lost, I would have felt the exact same appreciation.

You received tremendous support from campus members during your campaign.

Since the day we got back from Spring Break, we were at it all day, every day. I was completely humbled by the level of support that I got. I owe all of them and certainly anyone who voted for me in the election the best that I can give next year.

One of your main focuses for creating the best campus possible involved support of Counseling and Psychological Services. How did this idea originate?

I know the director of CAPS very well, through working with him on student government and through a variety of other projects. And I’ve been to CAPS on several occasions, and I know it’s been helpful for me. I know the effect it can have on students.

Do you feel the recent shootings at Virginia Tech have anything to teach us about services such as CAPS?

The tragedy at Virginia Tech should remind us of the importance of ensuring the physical and emotional safety and security of everyone in our Northwestern community. It is important both that all community members look out for each other, as well as having a supportive and available CAPS.

You founded NUOnlineBooks.com, a Web site that provides Northwestern textbooks at low prices, with a percentage of the proceeds going to charity. How did that initiative contribute to your campaign?

Student government should do more of what NUOnlineBooks did, which is see a problem on campus and be solution-oriented towards fixing it. ASG unsuccessfully lobbied to decrease prices at Norris for years, and that’s not a successful approach. And that means you need to find another way, and to me that was with NUOnlineBooks.

What else do you hope to improve in ASG during the coming year?

We don’t hold ourselves accountable both privately and publicly. We don’t have action plans for accomplishing the things that we set out to do. Too many times, people join the organization based on wish lists instead of a tangible plan of what they want to accomplish. We don’t do a good enough job doing external research: We don’t do a good enough job of figuring out what exactly a freshman on North Campus, who has never been in Norris, wants from ASG and wants on campus.

How do you plan on learning what that specific student wants?

Is it me going around to munchies all over campus, or going around campus with cards saying, “Hey, we want to hear what you guys think”? Is it organizing a barbecue at the Rock for people to be introduced to people on ASG exec? Is it doing scientific surveys that will be randomly sent to students all over campus, and have some sort of raffle prize as an incentive to do it? There are a lot of different ways to do it. You just have to be creative in your approach.

All of that takes a lot of time. I don’t know how you manage with classes.

[Laughs] I don’t either. I have a light class schedule this quarter: I’m only taking three classes. I’m in Norris most of the day, in and out between classes. I probably respond to 75 e-mails a day. So I spend three to four quality hours on Gmail, but it’s like anything on campus: You’re involved with the things that you love.

The presidency was the only ASG executive position that was opposed in the April 10th election. How do you feel about that?

I don’t think it reflects well on ASG. I don’t think it serves students. I love democracy, and if you love democracy, you have to love competition. You have to want there to be competition. The process of the campaign prepares people for what comes afterwards and I know that I’m going to be a lot better of a president after the two weeks than I would have been beforehand, and I wish everyone would have had that same experience.

You received 51.25 percent of the election’s votes. How do you feel about that margin?

It’s over 50 percent. I’m glad there wasn’t a runoff. I didn’t want to be at it for two more days. I was too tired. [Laughs]

With so much time invested in student politics and so many ideas, do you plan to continue politics in the future?

Politics have been in the background of my mind for a while and strengthened in the past few years. I’d eventually like to go into politics. More behind-the-scenes work, in terms of campaign managing and advisory-type stuff.

Looking ahead to that future, who do you look up to as a political figure?

Robert F. Kennedy. He was an amazing example of [a] solution-oriented guy who didn’t take no for an answer and did everything by a strict moral compass. I like that.

Would you say he is your biggest role model?

He and my brother, Stephen. He’s a Marine in infantry and returned for the second time from Iraq yesterday. He was there for seven months. It kind of puts things in perspective and that made me ten times happier than the election day did.