Chris Budnick, a freshman political science major, admitted his presidential candidate might not win come Nov. 2, but that is not stopping him from getting his newly-formed student group off the ground.

“Nader is a viable candidate, but it’s ludicrous to think he’s going to win,” Budnick said.

NU Students for Nader was recently founded by Budnick because he said he noticed area schools, including Harvard University and Tufts University, had student organizations supporting Nader, but at Northeast-ern, “no one had stepped up.”

Despite Budnick’s efforts and the 20 members of his club, NU Students for Nader is not an official university organization. When Budnick pursued this status, which includes the ability to rent campus facilities, he discovered a four to five week waiting period before the group could be called official. The election would be over by the time they could hold their first official meeting.

Budnick decided to use the NU International Socialist Organ-ization to rent rooms for the group’s meetings.

After contacting the campaign offices in Washington, D.C., Budnick said NU Students for Nader began to materialize. Along with others like senior music technology major Joe Knott, Budnick rallied support via the campus and online resources such as www.thefacebook.com.

To gain as much support for his candidate as possible, Budnick and fellow Nader supporters gathered around campus and handed out pamphlets, informing the public of their candidate’s positions.

The group is looking for additional members, specifically “people jaded by the entire [political] process that just want to forget about it,” Budnick said.

Nader’s stances are pro-gay marriage, anti-war and anti-globalization. Budnick said Nader has the clearest platform of any candidate, especially compared to Sen. John F. Kerry.

After outlining Nader’s platform to passersby, Budnick said, the usual reaction to the plan is that it makes sense.

Knott, who has also been an integral part of the group, attended a recent forum held by the Political Science Department to distribute information on Nader and bring diversity to the discussion on presidential politics.

“The major issue is the war and Nader is the only decidedly antiwar candidate,” Knott said.

Ralph Nader spoke at Harvard on Oct. 4. Budnick said Nader also showed interest in coming to Northeastern to speak.

“I thought Northeastern would want high profile presidential candidates [at the school],” Budnick said.

Alison Barlow, Student Government Association vice president for financial affairs, said issues with Nader never even came to a vote in senate.

“No sponsors were willing to pick up the program and run it,” she said.

Barlow said the potential vote concerned SGA sponsorship of Nader’s visit, not whether to allow him to speak.

Heidi Buchanan, president of the NU College Democrats, said third party organizations on campus have a noble purpose, but was skeptical of their effectiveness.

“I do not see much point to them,” she said.

She said the resources the College Democrats and Republicans receive are not available for third party groups.

“Third party candidates and support organizations … can’t build these alliances and get the resources, which affects their level of credibility,” Buchanan said.

Nader also ran for president in 2000 on the Green Party ticket. He received heavy criticism, especially from Democrats, for allegedly hurting candidate Al Gore in the very close presidential election.

Budnick said he doesn’t feel Nader will hurt anyone in the upcoming election.

“[Nader will] bring in more [people] to vote than he will take away from major candidates,” Budnick said.

Not everyone is best represented by Nader, and Budnick knows this, but said he hopes NU Students for Nader can “introduce political discourse” into the lives of the uninterested.

The next meeting for NU Students for Nader will be Oct. 19 in the Stetson East lounge.