Asian American Association Elects New Slate of Officers for 2001

The Asian American Association (AAA) announced on Sunday the election of one of its youngest and most diverse steering committees ever.

The committee, which will be headed by Co-Presidents Betty Hsu '03 and Kiri J. Mah '02, is composed of seven first-years, three sophomores and a single junior, Mah.

The committee's membership is also more diverse than that of past years. Cultural Chair Jay Pendse '04 is the first Indian-American in several years to be elected to the heavily East Asian board.

Hsu said the relative diversity of this year's board reflects AAA's efforts to increase the diversity of its membership.

"AAA is predominantly East Asian, which is definitely evident on the board, so we want to work on expanding our diversity," she said.

Hsu added that while she and Mah intend to continue traditional AAA activities like the weekly discussion groups, their primary goal is to make AAA a more social organization.

"We've been focused on politics, and it's sort of hard to keep people interested in the organization when all you do is work, work, work," Hsu said. "We want to have more random movie nights and dim-sum runs."

The election was relatively uncontested, with 14 students running for 11 positions. Voter turnout was also light, with fewer than 100 AAA members taking part.

Former Co-President Jenny I. Shen '01 attributed the low turnout to reading period as well as the small number of positions that were being contested.

The other newly elected Steering Committee members are Vice-Presidents Julia Chuang '03 and Sophia Lai '04, Educational Chair Yan Fang '04, Social Chairs Candice Chiu '04 and Albert C. F. Yeung '04, Interethnic Liaison Robin J. Tang '04 and Webmaster Roger Hong '03.