Promoting South Asian culture and brotherhood are two goals of a campus group working to create a new fraternity chapter at MSU.
Bringing Alpha Iota Omicron to MSU will help organize and unite South Asian male students on campus, said members of South Asian Fraternity Interest Organization, or SAFIO.
"The last couple of years, it's been a very informal setting, not an organized network of individuals," said Devesh Poddar, SAFIO president and political science and accounting senior. "This is more systematic - we'll have an agenda and we'll have things to do. The organized form of a fraternity gives us the direction we're looking for."
Members of MSU Coalition of Indian Undergraduate Students, or CIUS, said South Asian Fraternity Interest Organization will provide another way for South Asian students to connect.
"Aside from CIUS, there's not really a place for Indian guys to get together and have a strong brotherhood," said Prashant Nashi, social chairman for the coalition and an advertising junior.
Lambda Phi Epsilon, an Asian fraternity on campus, also started out with a fraternity interest group. Other Asian fraternities and sororities on campus include Pi Alpha Phi, alpha Kappa Delta Phi and Alpha Phi Gamma.
But members of SAFIO said South Asian students specifically have something special to offer to the greater community.
"India's a part of Asia, but if you look at all the other cultural aspects of Asia, we stand out completely - it's a completely different culture than the rest of Asia," Nashi said.
There are about 20 members in SAFIO, and the group is still recruiting. Members expect to begin pledging at Alpha Iota Omicron's Alpha Chapter base at the University of Michigan in December and January.
Should SAFIO members be accepted, they will become members of the Gamma chapter of Alpha Iota Omicron at MSU.
As of now, there are two Alpha Iota Omicron chapters, the Alpha chapter at U-M and a Beta chapter at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Neal Pancholi, co-president of Alpha Iota Omicron at U-M, said the Alpha and Beta chapters and alumni are enthusiastic for the fraternity to come to MSU's campus because many of its current members are close with SAFIO members. Pancholi said the addition of the fraternity will provide another connection.
He said the South Asian group's presence at U-M helps its members identify with each other through their similarities, but also encourages them learn from their differences.
"I can call my brother, who is Pakistani Muslim, and I can talk to him about things and get a completely different perspective," he said. "But at the end of the day, we know there are similar commonalties that unite us."
The group can also help international students find common ground on such a large campus, said accounting freshman Yash Advani, the secretary for the coalition, who was born in India.
"When I came here, I had no one to go to - no friends, no relatives," he said. "I was looking for any organization to help me meet more people from my clan, from my society."
Sonia Khaleel can be reached at khaleel1@msu.edu.
