The Meet Your Candidates event held on May 7 in the main quad introduced the candidates running for 2014-2015 DASB Senate positions. The event encouraged students to follow De Anza’s student elections and to be informed on who they vote for.

While there are many independent candidates running, the two major coalitions are Empower and D.A.R.E.

Empower’s presidential candidate Mia Hernandez, 20, political science major and vice president candidate Jaymar Hardesty, 20, undecided major shared that Empower’s main goal is to take action and empower the De Anza students.

“What that means to us is that action is Advocating for the students’ wants, needs and desires,” Hernandez said. “Community. Being a community college everyone feels they are involved in and have a place. Taking Initiative, which means not only listening to students, but taking action. Opportunity. Making sure the students have the opportunity to get what they need. Finally N, meaning no B.S. No B.S. means that it is very clear to students what De Anza has to offer.”

The event showed the students that no matter who is elected, each party will advocate for students rights.

D.A.R.E. presidential candidate Julia Malakiman, 18, communications major and vice president candidate Kevin Wilson Suarez, 19, economics major advocated for very specific changes such as extended library and tutoring center time for night school students, improving the financial aid process by making it easier to navigate for students and food variety on campus in the form of food trucks.