A million dollar budget hung in the balance while students voted to elect new ASCC senators. Nine seats for Freshmen and 24 seats for Sophomore students have been filled.

Senate elections took place last Wednesday, Sept. 9 and Thursday, Sept. 10, attracting more voters than previous years, according to an election committee member.

Despite the larger voting turnout, there were still many students unaware of the elections.

Jocelyn Torralba, communications major, said, “I did not know that there was voting at all.”

She also said that it’s great to have a student senate because it can help bring more resources to improve the campus.

Christopher Vargas, nursing major, said that he voted because he was swayed by his friend’s reasons for running.

Vargas felt that student senate is important because, “We have some one who can speak for us [students].”

Vargas compared the elections on campus to a presidential election stating, “If there were more posters around and you would hear the people [candidates] speaking and debate speeches, people [students] would actually pay more attention and […] would want to vote […] for people they like.”

Cynthia Grace, biology major, felt that it would be tough for students to vote because, “They should have been promoting, I did not know about the elections.”

Elected senator, Daniel Flores Resendiz said, “I’m running to […] represent those who have been marginalized, who feel under represented.”

Resendiz received 135 votes according to the information released by ASCC, he has three main objectives he aims to accomplish as a senator.

“There [are] three initiatives that I’m [going to] focus on. The first one is participatory democracy, this is a new concept, what that would entail is making sure that students at large would be able to vote in decisions that affect them… instead of senate voting it would be the entire student body population.”

Resindiz also hopes to open gym facilities, courts and fields to all students, and improve student resources.

Joseph Fierro, another elected senator, received the most votes of anyone on the ballot with 169 votes.

He wants to put the meaning of community back into community college.

“I want to start advocating for youth gang members[…] when I was in high school I was part of Male Academy,” he said.

Fierro explained that Male Academy was a group that targeted male students at Jordan High school who were involved in gangs, or at risk, and helped them improve in school and life.

They did this through activities such as community service.

Fierro wishes to start up a similar program at Cerritos College targeting at risk youth and gang members but open to any students on campus.

ASCC has released a complete list of the candidates who have been elected to the senate on their ASCC court Facebook page, go to ASCC Court .