South Asians Elect New Officers, Urge Diversity

The need to address and integrate religious, cultural and regional diversity dominated the platform in Sunday's South Asian Association (SAA) elections.

Unopposed candidates Sameer Bhargava '95 and Pankaj Tiwari '95 were elected as co-presidents during the four-hour meeting before more than 50 members in Harvard Hall.

"Basically, I think the big issue of the night was diversity," Bhargava said.

"We want to make sure that what-ever events we hold are all inclusive of the geographical backgrounds, religions, cultures, and genders of our membership, and take advantage of our diversity," he said.

The co-presidents said they also wanted to increase campus awareness of South Asian issues, meetings and events.

"Our second big issue was publicity--making sure that everybody knows about the events," Bhargava said. "We want to start up an E-mail system, quarterly magazine, and bimonthly newsletter, and interact more with the campus and the community."

More Than 200 Members

SAA, a diverse group of more than 200 members, includes about 5 percent of the first year and the sophomore classes, said Sahil A. Parikh '95, who was elected treasurer.

"We are trying to integrate SAA into the family of organizations on campus, including AAA, BSA, LaO, RAZA, and the Islamic Society," Parikh said.

"We are very much an autonomous organization, but we want to work with other organizations as much as possible as well," Parikh said.

Elected officers will take over next fall. New chairs of the committees are Natasha D. Bir '96, social/cultural chair; Nikesh S. Parekh '95, academic/political chair and Rajni K. Rao '96, publicity chair.