Two De Anza College Student Body senators resigned and one was officially removed during the Apr. 18 meeting in the student chambers.
Madina Jahed, Kenneth Perng, and Nelson Chuang were the latest student senators to leave their positions making the total 14 out of the original 29.
Chen Xu, Saurau Agaruwal, Zara Aslam, Nevin Sarina, Ernest L.W. Linous, Jaime Trinh, William Utomo, Leela Trankella, Carolyn Chen, Vivan Nguyen, and Victor Chien were the senators who first resigned sporadically during the past academic year.
Nelson Chuang was the only senator to be officially removed from the senate due to lack of participation. The other senators resigned due to heavy course loads of 17 units or more, not meeting senate participation requirements, medical issues, or personal family matters.
“I resigned because I took 27 credits for my winter quarter, plus 10 hours per week of work as an accounting tutor at the De Anza tutor center,” former senator William Utomo said. “I wish I could continue my duty as a student senator but my obligation as a student who is supposed to finish my education stopped me in serving the students through the student body.”
Eight junior senators have filled empty seats, bringing the total amount of senators to 23 currently.
According to DASB Senate President Arvind Ravichandran, bringing first year junior senators into senator positions has it’s advantages.
“That’s how I joined senate. I was able to learn a lot of things last year and make a lot of mistakes as well. There’s no real disadvantages that I can perceive. Most candidates who run after general elections in may have passed are accepted by the larger senate,” Ravichandran said.
The remaining senators only have until May 31 until the newly elected senate will be sworn in at the student chambers room. Until then, current senators are focussing on increasing the pool of candidates, and providing them spaces to campaign.
If any De Anza students are interested in campaigning for a spot on the DASB senate, they may find the application along with the DASB elections code. on http://deanza.edu/dasb/elections/ and must turn the application in at the Office of College Life by May 4 by 4 p.m.
There are 3 meetings that candidates must attend while campaigning.
Campaigning exhibition week is from May 13 to May 20.
If any students are interested in campaigning for senate, they must attend the senate bylaw review meeting being held on May 2 at 2:30 p.m.
Students may start voting for new senators from May 21 to May 27 at www.deanza.edu/studentvote.
