Before Mathew Egan’s first year at De Anza is complete, he’s set his sight on the De Anza Associated Student Body presidential seat and plans on staying awhile. But don’t look at Egan’s freshman year at De Anza as inexperience; this 21 year old full time financial aid student brings the type of maturity and responsibility that can only be learned from a three-and-a-half year marriage and a two year-old son. Egan returned to college with his family’s blessing after a successful stint working for Nintendo and Electronic Arts as a merchandiser. Egan’s says his past experiences helped him with the decision to run for president. He sat in on a few DASB meetings this year and thought that the order and ideas could have been stronger. “At EA, when something works we go with it, but when something doesn’t work you have to change.” Egan said, while he critiqued the current senate. “Some of the DASB members tend to come with only one view.” Egan is campaigning together with vice presidential candidate Lucia Cytrinowicz, 23, a former member of the judiciary committee at Carnegie Mellon University who dealt with major grievances against students. Cytrinowicz is proud to attend De Anza for the diversity and the scholastic reputation. “We are one of the top community colleges in the country. We’re setting standards and if students knew more about De Anza, they might care more,” said Cytrinowicz. Egan and Cytrinowicz are running on the slogan “23,000 conversations strong,” an example of what they want to bring to the senate and to all the students on campus. The 23,000 represents the students of De Anza who Egan and Cytrinowicz feel are not represented in the senate as they should be. “If we are elected we will maximize student involvement. Who is the DASB accountable to? Students need a reason to care. We will try to have some meetings more open and visible to the students, possibly outside.” As for the highly contested debate currently streaming around De Anza, smoking, Egan wanted to be honest more than anything. The smoking rule that has been implemented at De Anza this past fall is just an enforcement of a previous rule, a rule that the DASB has little power to change. “I know that smoking is a huge issue at De Anza right now but I’m not going to make any promises that I can’t live up to. You can’t walk into De Anza without walking past smokers and smoking is a part of some student’s lives. We need to hear from both sides and find some middle ground. Maybe more ashtrays and more places to smoke, but that’s not up the senate. We need to have an open discussion between the senate and faculty to propose alternatives.”

– John Ellis