south asian conference council

mission statement

summary   •  schedule  •  registration

 speakers & performers   •   getting to yale

mission statement   •   constitution   •   contact

»  Why a Conference?                                                                                                               

We deliberately decided on a conference as the venue for increasing political activism because we felt it would provide a number of opportunities for activism over an extended period of time and would allow many students at Yale to get involved. In addition, we felt that the problem of South Asian political apathy probably existed at other schools as well and wanted to motivate students both inside and outside of Yale to become active in their communities. The conference then would create a forum for politically active students to come together and discuss issues relevant to South Asian American communities.

We were inspired by the various South Asian American-related conferences and activities that have been held over the years at nearby colleges, some of which were overtly political, such as the Generation 2000 (G2K) conference held at Brown in November 1999 and the Radical South Asia conference held at Vassar in April 2001.

However, there are no institutionalized conferences that take place on a regular basis which address the types of issues we feel are important to the South Asian American community. There is SASA, the South Asian Student Alliance, but we felt that conferences of this nature often lose their political edge in the social events. There is also Youth Solidarity Summer (YSS), an extremely successful one-week activist training session held in New York City every summer. But since YSS is held in the summer and only accepts a limited number of students however, it could not a forum in which all students could come together.

»  Student Involvement                                                                                                             

As mentioned above, in organizing the conference we wanted to create a space where students interested in becoming more active in their local (and broader) South Asian American communities would have a chance to interact with panelists and speakers who have shown dedication to various causes and discuss amongst themselves ways to build coalitions and address concerns of their own colleges and communities. To achieve that goal we have included the workshops in the conference schedule.

-The South Asian Conference Council,

Yale College Chapter (because we will expand)