By MacKenzie Korsi

A group of seven students at Southern Methodist University have begun the planning process of creating a South Asian Students Association on campus by the end of the 2016-17 academic school year.

“There’s a population of students who are underserved by the current organizational structure at SMU,” says Aabid Shivji, a junior at SMU studying management and philosophy and the visionary for the new organization. “There are currently South Asian students who do not identify as Indian and who do not have an explicit home on campus.”

Shivji serves as the current treasurer for Muslim Students Association (MSA) and previously served on the board of Indian Students Association (ISA). Now, Shivji is the primary visionary behind a potential new student organization at SMU called South Asian Students Association (SASA).

While Shivji actively supports both MSA and ISA on campus, he sees a need for a new organization to more explicitly include students identifying with their South Asian culture. Throughout his time in ISA, Shivji noticed many South Asian-American and South Asian international students passing by the organization because they did not identify as Indian. At the same time, ISA became a safe haven for other South Asian-American students who did not identify as Indian. While ISA provided a home for these students on campus, the organization still lacked complete cultural inclusivity. Shivji hopes that SASA will become “an explicit home [for South Asian students] that would not otherwise be there.”

Shivji envisions SASA as a place on SMU’s campus where students don’t have to choose how they identify, but can embrace and cherish the diversity of their unique cultures. He hopes MSA, ISA and SASA can live in tandem with one another and more holistically meet the needs of SMU students. He says, “it seems like there needs to be a space that’s a little bit more inclusive – not just in name, but rather, in function – purposefully designed to be more inclusive and more of a home to students who are traditionally left out of those conversations about culture [in ISA].”

As of now, Shivji and six other students make up the planning committee for SASA. Freshman Zubaida Aslam also serves on the committee, and she hopes to make SASA a place where South Asian cultures can come together and celebrate their cultures. “I wanted to get involved mostly because I saw there was something where I felt like I belonged in religion [MSA], but not more as to my culture,” Aslam said. “I didn’t feel like I belonged [in ISA] because I’m not Indian, [even though] they’re inclusive.”

The planning committee for SASA, which includes three first-year students, two sophomores, one junior and one senior, conducted its first official meeting on Nov. 2. While Shivji serves as the current visionary for the organization, he hopes SASA will form through the visions of its underclassmen members. Shivji explains that while the idea for this organization originated from his experience on campus, he just sees a need and would like to help empower other students to fill the need and build the organization by making it their own.

The planning committee’s first priority is writing a constitution for the new organization in order to present it to Student Senate for a charter acquisition by the end of the 2016-17 academic year. If Senate approves SASA, they will receive a temporary charter and must maintain all the requirements for a student organization for one year. At the end of the year, if Senate approves SASA, the organization will receive a full charter from the university and will function out of the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs. The planning committee strives for acquisition of a full charter by the end of the 2017-18 academic year.

“Student Senate says that [getting] a full charter is the biggest victory I could hope for by the time I graduate. That is the end goal for me … Then the organization is entirely up to the new people,” Shivji said.

Shivji hopes to hold an interest meeting for SASA in March and fully prepare events and general member meeting details for the Fall 2017 semester by the end of the 2016-17 academic year. For students looking to get involved with SASA, look for information from Shivji about the interest meeting or email him at [email protected] with any questions.