The 2014-15 DASB Senate candidates gathered at a meeting April 29, talking about their hopes to achieve unity, equality and better representation next year.

Candidates were informed of current DASB election codes and schedules, had their photos taken for the ballot and had their ballot numbers assigned.

According to the 2014-15 election candidates list, 37 candidates plan on running for senator positions.

Among those candidates is Nero Chen, 20, business and finance major, who wants to solve unspoken issues.

“I want to find hidden issues on campus and solve them to make De Anza a better place to study,” Chen said.

Maria Ho, 19, economics major, also a senate candidate, said she wishes to unite the students of De Anza College.

“I feel people are too separated,” Ho said. “I want people to be united because people are super busy on transferring, so I want to organize more events so people can join and meet new friends.”

Wendy Leslie Martell, 24, computer science major, also a candidate for senator, hopes to create a STEM department at De Anza.

“I want to create a STEM department because we do not have one,” Martell said. “I think more students would be interested in it, if they know about science, technology, engineering and math. That is something we need here.”

Helen Vu, 19, political science major, said she also wants to bring students together through the addition of new events.

“I am running for the unification of De Anza through diverse events,” Vu said. “I want to create more equity events, such as week-long festival, like many schools have it or even our own TED talk.”

According to the candidate list, three candidates are running for student trustee. Including political science major, Jaymar Hardesty, 21, who said he wants to better represent students.

“I want to give students better representation on the board of trustees because the board makes decisions on policies, programs and the amount of funding given to student services and programs,” Hardesty said.

Up to 30 DASB senator candidates can be elected.

Election Week will begin May 18 and end on May 22. De Anza students can vote online through My Portal in the Campus Events section of the Home tab. There will also be voting booths on campus during election week.