South Asian Association Elects New Officers

In a four-hour election the Harvard-Radcliffe South Asian Association (SAA) elected its new board last night.

Sharmil S. Modi '99 and Neil R. Lawande '99 beat out two other pairs for the organization's co-presidency.

"Basically we're dedicated to getting more people involved in SAA and giving them a stake in the organization and where it goes," Modi said.

About 60 students attended the elections.

Although five of the organization's seven other positions were originally uncontested, many contenders trickled down to race for lower positions after losing higher spots.

"I thought that this year we were lucky to have a lot of people running, which reflects a growing and more active membership," said Mallar Bhattacharya '98, outgoing co-president of SAA. "I think we have a good balance of rising juniors and sophomores for next year as well as a fair amount of board experience among the new officers."

Amit N. Doshi '00 defeated Aadil T. Ginwala '00 for the office of treasurer.

Five students ran for cultural chair. Jahnavi M. Kirtane '99--who originally ran for co-presidency with Syeda T. Hossain '99--won the position.

Although the position of social chair was also originally uncontested, five students trickled down from earlier rounds. Monica B. Shah '99 was re-elected to the position. Earlier in the evening, Shah and Sonali Bose '99 were the third team to run for co-presidents.

Shaheen J. Zojwalla '99, who ran against four other contenders, was elected secretary.

In uncontested elections, Uttam K. Tambar '00 was named academic-political chair, Ravi K. Dixit '00 was named interethnic chair and Gaurav A. Upadhyay '00 was named publicity chair.