Candidates for the 2016 Associated Students, Inc. elections will battle it out in April.

The ASI election this year will have a total of 30 students running for five executive positions and nine college director positions. The election will be held April 19-21.

The campaigning period, which will begin on March 28, will give students the opportunity to interact with candidates through club and classroom visits, as well as various events hosted by ASI.

ASI will be hosting six candidate forums in April. At these forums, students will have the chance to meet, listen to and question the candidates.

“We make it so that the audience can’t ask one candidate a pointed question,” said Andrea Salas, executive vice president of ASI. “Whatever the audience asks has to be answered by all the candidates. So we try to make it fair and equitable for all the candidates.”

The faculty strike, which is expected to take place April 13-15 and April 18-19, will coincide with the ASI elections. However, Salas said ASI has already taken the strike into consideration during their planning of the events. Initially, the election was to be held on April 19 and 20 only, but a third date, the 21, was added after the faculty strike was announced.

“I have faith that our students will come through,” Salas said. “I have faith that our students will make sure their voices are heard, especially because the issue of the faculty strike is something students need to get their voices heard about. Elections provide an avenue to really voice their opinions and to allow a student be the voice of those students during that difficult time.”

Although the ASI election is one of the biggest events on campus, there are still many students who are unaware of the elections and do not participate in it.

Juan Rivera, a junior mechanical engineering major, said he’s never participated in the elections before and does not think it is important to participate in it.

Child development graduate student Sheng Vang said she has only participated in the elections once during her freshman year. But now she said she is too busy with school, so she doesn’t think about it.

According Salas, voter participation has always been an issue. Last spring, only 15.1 percent of the student population cast their votes in the election, which was the largest turnout in 10 years.

Students will be able to vote online at www.asi.csus.edu or at the polling locations on campus during the three days voting is open.