After pushes from the University of California, Riverside’s (UCR) South Asian community, the Associated Students of UCR (ASUCR) officially acknowledged the need for a South Asian Student Center (SASC) on campus. This year, steps have been taken to begin the process of creating this affinity space to represent the South Asian population on UCR’s campus, providing them with specialized services and staffing.
Organizations, such as UCR’s South Asian Federation (SAF), have been working in collaboration with ASUCR to draft a proposal to present to administration. This proposal is meant to be “data-driven,” presenting the administrators with quantitative and qualitative demand for the center.
Vice President of Finance Cooper Kumar explained one of the ways organizers such as himself, College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (CNAS) Senator Vinisha Lalli, CNAS Senator Jeevan Rao and many more have attempted to develop such a proposal. By sending out a survey last year, they were able to inquire if students would be interested in such a center and what they would like to see once created.
As of Feb. 9, the survey currently has 300 responses and counting as ASUCR and SAF continue their joint tabling sessions. Kumar explained that during the winter quarter is when the project plans to do most of its outreach efforts. They are attempting to gather up to 500-600 responses to gather as much data as possible and present a strong proposal to administration.
Kumar described how fall quarter’s efforts centered around “planning and administration measures” saying that “we were kind of structuring in what way we wanted to conduct our data collection methods, conduct our project overall, in general, which included promoting the survey very frequently.” He noted that one of their most significant influences in planning was Middle Eastern Student Center Director Gina Waneis, who explained to him the lengthy process of creating the Middle Eastern Student Center (MESC) at UCR. She emphasized heavily that it took a great deal of advocacy over 10 years for the creation of a Middle Eastern Student Center to come to fruition.
Outreach, however, not only refers to tabling and contacting students but also within administration. Kumar further elaborated, “We’re looking to outreach to number one, Tony Jimenez. He’s the Associate Dean of Students, or student affairs. He’s one of the admin officials that more directly oversees Costo Hall, second one we’re looking at targeting our outreach with the APSP director Billy Caganap. We want to gain further insights into how South Asian students are currently represented in these spaces, and what that infrastructure, and I guess usage of those resources looks like right now. And then finally, we want to reach out to a lot of the faculty and staff that may potentially be in support of such a center, particularly those in the Ethnic Studies Department, just again, to kind of ramp up what level we’re at with our advocacy and gain that like more because more structured support, because they’re kind of like admin or admin as they’re there. It’s beyond students. We want to make this very collaborative.”
These connections would “expand the advocacy base” of the causes as well as strengthen relations with administration and faculty. Kumar, Lalli and others plan to use spring quarter to gather student testimonials to add to the proposal pushing its overall presentation likely to fall quarter 2025. CNAS Senator Lalli described joint centers such as South Asian and Middle Eastern Student Centers in schools like UC Berkeley and UC San Diego.
According to survey responses, though students of South Asian heritage are hoping for programs such as cultural events and mental health resources, they have expressed the most need for a physical space on campus that represents their identity. Lalli explains that this is because they are “bundled up between two different centers right now. I think having their own center, like, focusing on our community issues is very important too, because we have different stuff in our community that we go through.” She explained further that having a physical space on campus often emboldens and empowers students to advocate for issues concerning their community, such as micro aggressions regarding skin color, food and image.
