The Associated Students of Diablo Valley College’s board positions are open for Fall 2016, and many of the running candidates don’t seem to be making their campaigning period a priority.

On Wednesday, April 6 in the Student Union Conference Room, ASDVC held their “2016 General Election Debate,” and only six out of 19 candidates remained present until the end on the event.

Though many ASDVC members are running for next semesters vacant board positions, very few candidates showed up for one of the most important events of their campaigning period.

During the debate, candidates had the chance to present themselves to audience members, giving a brief background of their life, qualifications, and plans to help improve DVC.

The debate concluded with a question and answer period where audience members were able to ask the candidates their specific questions about DVC related issues.

An audience member asked, “how do you plan on merging international students with domestic students?”

“The reason for the segregation is because we don’t reach out to each other,” said Cheng Lin, candidate for Diversity Affairs Officer. “When I speak with non-international students, I feel embarrassed. I want international students to feel comfortable enough to speak up. There needs to be patience in order for that to happen.”

Tiangan Allen He, candidate for secretary, added on to Lin’s answer, suggesting, “We will definitely need to offer international students English sessions to work on perfecting their English.”

Diversity Affairs Officer candidate, Efrain Steven Solis, changed the direction of the question by answering, “I want to focus on the now. I want to work on providing psychological services for students who need help relaxing and taking a break from school. I’m not trying to rush anything.”

Gears changed when a different audience member asked, “How will you promote scholarships at DVC?”

“Scholarships are super important,” said Andrew Soegiharto, candidate for Vice President Of Legislative Affairs. “I didn’t know DVC wasn’t promoting their scholarships. But now that I do, I hope myself and the other candidates will help promote scholarships to the DVC student body.”

Lin disagreed, stating DVC scholarships need no promotion at all. “I don’t think ASDVC needs to promote DVC scholarships. If you need scholarships you should already know about them.”

“I would ask the administration if they need ASDVC’s help promoting scholarships first, but other than that it’s not the biggest priority,” said John Michaelson, candidate for Parliamentarian.

Due to the small amount of audience members at the 2016 general election debate, it is unclear at this point who out of the candidates will win.

The ASDVC General Election voting period will be on Wednesday and Thursday, April 13 and 14 from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the DVC Cafeteria.

Free food and beverages will be available to students who vote.