The AHANA Leadership Council (ALC) elected Seif Ammus, CSOM ’08, and Rejjie Sahai, A&S ’08, as its leaders for next year, replacing the current leadership duo of Noelle Green, A&S ’07 and Rose Chou, A&S ’07.
Elected from a field of four candidates on Sunday by the members of the ALC and the presidents of the Organization of Latin American Affairs, the Black Student Forum, the Asian Caucus, and the Society of Native American Peoples, Ammus and Sahai will be responsible for picking and leading the next ALC. Although their term does not officially start until the next academic year, they will start work immediately to form next year’s council and both have encouraged interested people to apply.
The ALC commands a $67,250 budget this year and is responsible for advocating for the interests and needs of all AHANA students. In addition, the council puts on major programming events such as the boat cruise, Showdown, and Ball, and it also hosts smaller events intended to foster dialogue and education about racial issues on campus and beyond.
“It is our job to make sure [the ALC] is fulfilling its mission of uplifting the community socially, politically, and academically,” said Ammus. “It’s our place to talk to administrators, acting as a liaison and an ambassador.”
Sahai said one of the key goals for this year will be reaching out to other groups.
“We really want to make communication lines stronger between culture groups and other clubs,” she said.
Ammus agreed. “We want to reach out and form working relationships with clubs and groups that may be having events we are interested in so we can combine forces and bring the turnout they deserve,” he said.
Sahai said that she hopes the ALC will be able to reach out to all members of the Boston College community.
“Many of our events that are focused around entertainment like the Boat Cruise and the Showdown have a very diverse turnout. We are hoping that we can create an atmosphere where our events that are more focused on education can also have as much interest from the whole community,” she said. “I’d like to see the entire campus be aware of social justice issues and be able to respect and understand where each other comes from.”
Breaking the typical mold of being designated president and vice president, Ammus said that he and Sahai will be joining forces as co-presidents next year.
“I have relinquished whatever hierarchical power I had over her,” he said. “I think we need to work as a cohesive unit, so I felt there was no need to have any sort of dominant hierarchy. It just made sense.”
Green, the outgoing president, said in an e-mail that the job isn’t easy, but she has hope for the new leaders.
“Running the ALC is hard work, a full-time job with little rewards. There is always more criticism than praise, more complaints than useful suggestions,” she said. “I feel the newly elected leaders will do a wonderful job of blending the Council’s tradition of radical race campus activism with their personal styles of leadership and political interests.”
