May 3, 2013

By Vivian Qian

The South Asian Student Association announced its newly elected executive board members at its formal April 27.

“I think this new board has a great deal of experience,” SASA Treasurer Pritesh Patel said in email. “I think Amanpreet, new president of SASA, will have a lot of connections that will help SASA a great deal. I also believe that with most of the executive board returning from last year, it will be easier to get into the flow of things.”

SASA, affiliated with the Asian American Association, also consistently teams up with the Women’s Center and the Multicultural Center to hold events.

Next semester, the executive board plans to keep some unique SASA events.

“In the next semester, we will keep Garba, a social event, and Festival of Lights, which is the decorating of candle holders,” President Amanpreet Shinger said. “We will make detailed planning during summer.”

SASA seeks to raise its popularity on campus.

“To make SASA more well known, I think it starts with having a good foundation,” Patel said. “In order to do this, we need to have at least monthly general body meetings. I think this way, we can have at least a few solid members, and they can even bring friends. To raise attendance, I think each meeting should have an extra incentive such as free food or even discounts for future events.”

Open to all the people in MU community, SASA serves as a platform to bring students of different culture backgrounds together and to raise their awareness of diversity.

Patel said that he believes SASA is helpful for students to establish a good base of friends, and it makes the transition from high school to college much easier.

SASA webmaster Tama Chakrabarty said learning about culture is an important part of the organization.

“We work to educate our community and peers and promote cultural awareness,” Chakrabarty said.