Name: Sania Chandrani
Year: Sophomore
Major: BBA & International Studies
Extracurricular Activities: College Council, Ultimate Frisbee, EIRA, ResLife
Tameka: What is College Council?
Sania: College Council is the undergraduate student governing body that oversees chartering, funding, and some programming for the College of Arts & Sciences as well as leads various student organized initiatives to improve the student experience.
T: Why did you join CC?
S: I’ve always had an interest in government, so what better place to start than as a student. I wanted to be a liaison between the student body and their needs and the administration/figures of power in this school to see to it that those needs were addressed.
T: What is Social Justice Week?/What events were held?
S: SJW is a series of events meant to promote social justice in various communities around Emory and empower our student body to stand up for the issues they care about. Our aim is to be as inclusive as possible of different types of issues and intersections of identities that experience and fight against these issues. As a result, we included a range of issues from racial and reproductive justice to inclusiveness of gender, religion, sexuality and other identities. We also recognize that people work toward justice in different ways, art, learning, conversation, poetry, writing, and more, so we’ve attempted to provide a host of entry points into this work to meet people where they are and empower them to take another step forward.
T: What went into planning Social Justice Week?
S: We’ve been working since last semester to make this week a success. Some of the work is exciting like meeting people like Sasheer Zamata and poets like Kyla Lacey or activists from around the community. Some things are gratifying like seeing people imagine what justice means to them and painting it or getting over their discomfort of discussing sexuality at our condom casino. Some are rewarding like building relationships with campusorganizations who work toward similar goals like SHAG and SAPA or religious groups. But to be honest, a lot of it is siting down and first conceptualizing what the week should look like–that’s glamorous–defining “social justice.” But once you’ve done that, it’s mostly sending hordes of emails getting people to buy-in, encouraging students to come out to the events that we’ve worked so hard on, designing marketing materials, coordinating with speakers and artists and suppliers. Sometimes, we’d get lost in all the nitty gritty, so remembering the big picture became difficult. But the spark of justice we were trying to ignite and coax in others was what inspired us to work through it and see our brainchild come to life.