The A.S. Presidential hopefuls gathered on Tuesday evening to inform and persuade the public that their platforms had the most to offer the student body for the next school year.

While many candidates for senator, vice president and president were there to answer questions and give their perspectives, it was also evident that certain candidates were missing.

Adam Haverstock, presidential hopeful under the “Students First” slate and is the current Director of Finance, was the only candidate representing his platform.

“Vote for P.E.D.R.O.” stands for People Empowering Diversity, Representation Of and For Students. This is headed by Dina Cervantes, who is the Director of Political Awareness and was a member of the Interclub Council at Santa Monica College.

Also present with Cervantes were running mates, Monica McNeeley, and Vianney Moran, who is running for the lower division senator.

Adam Salgado, current A.S. President, is running with “111 – You Decide Again” which re-emphasizes the platform he ran on last year. Salgado was joined by a number of members from his cabinet including his running mate Darren Hause. Robert Press is running for the senate seat for the Behavioral and Social Sciences. Yolie Vasquez and Jessper Maquindang are both running for an at-large senate seat.

Miguel Segura, who is running for president on the “Make A Connection” platform, was unable to attend the press conference due to “academic conflicts” according to his running mate, Bethany Tucker. She was joined by Lyla Askejian, who is running for upper division senator.

Clubs and organizations were a major topic for all presidential hopefuls, but when all were confronted with the fact that only 10 percent of the CSUN student population was involved in a club or organization, each slate had a unique perspective on how to increase funding and involvement.

Haverstock offered a three-point system for improving A.S. that was based on, according to him, “effective government, fair funding and student issues.”

One of Haverstock’s main points was about fair funding, where he was referring to clubs and organizations.

“I would like to increase direct funding from 10 percent to 15 percent,” he said.

When Haverstock was asked how he would accomplish the increase in funding and where the funding would come from, he said that by being the president, he would move the funding from other areas of A.S. Finance.

“We shouldn’t be judging clubs for how long they’ve been in existence,” Haverstock said.

Cervantes, who has had previous involvement in clubs, expressed hope at the creation of an interclub council on campus. “I would hope that would help clubs to get communicating,” she said.

Cervantes expressed hope with getting more people involved in clubs and organizations.

“We have a very diverse population. We need to focus on the younger students,” Cervantes said.

Salgado said that the focus needed to be on advertising and student productions and campus entertainment, or SPACE. “We have amazing marketing. Make the events even bigger. They also need support by AS services.”

Tucker felt that increased student involvement in clubs and organizations would create its own advertisement and help other students to hear about events. “Word of mouth would spread to the other 90 percent on campus.”

Thomas Sekayan addressed the candidates with passion as he said, “Awareness isn’t what’s needed – it’s action. Would you fight for the students?”

All candidates responded that they would fight for the students.

Haverstock responded, “Visibility in AS is supposed to be an advocacy team. I plan on making my ‘street team’ an activist committee.”

Cervantes acknowledged that she wanted to create a working relationship with the Sundial, who she felt could reach students effectively. “It’s because of them that students found out fees were going up.”

Salgado promoted the existing advocacy team, stating, “I want to have AS advocacy go all out.”