Origins of ISA
Information about the formation of the Indian Students' Association at U of M is sketchy and incomplete. Events chronicled by the university indicate that the ISA existed and functioned as early as 1984. The activities carried out ranged from movie screenings to games and dinner socials. However, it is believed that around 1995-96, ISA's activities had receded to an extent that by Fall 1996, ISA was virtually non-existent.
ISA Reloaded
It was due to some pioneering efforts by students like Jitin Singhal and Nishant Jain, that the ISA was revived and some structure was established in the form of a committee. The first event organised by this new structure was a Diwali dinner in Fall 1996. The event was held in the "Blue Lounge" of the G. G. Brown building on North Campus and was attended by 50-60 people. Food and music was arranged using personal contributions of the organisers. These contributions were never recovered, but the sense of enthusiasm and optimism of the organisers was contagious, and more and more people started responding positively to ISA's activities.
Nishant Jain and Manav Verma guided ISA into 1997. For the first time, ISA arranged for incoming students to be picked up from the Detroit international airport and brought to Ann Arbor. Apartments were booked in Willowtree Apartments preemptively for new students coming from India. (Willowtree Apartments is an rental apartments complex close to North Campus. Preemptive booking was extremely helpful, since most apartments close to campus are filled to capacity by August, when most new students arrive in Ann Arbor.) That year saw increased participation in ISA events, with students from other South Asian countries and even some Americans attending its Diwali and Holi socials.
In 1998, the reins were handed down to Manish Chopra and Salil Rege. The three years that followed witnessed an exponential rise in ISA's activities. Aided by the increasing influx of Indian graduate students to the university, the ISA membership increased manifold. The number of volunteers had increased. The small committee of yesteryears was replaced by a 15 member strong board. Various committees handled varied activities like trips to Chicago and Niagara, cricket matches with PSA, yearbooks, etc. The Diwali function was enhanced to include cultural performances. The ISA website was also set up during this period. One of the major accomplishments of ISA during this period was the successful screening of the 1999 Cricket World Cup played in England. This period also saw increasing involvement of undergraduate students in ISA's activities. After Manish Chopra left in the year 2000 (as also during his stay) ISA was ably managed by a board of dedicated and enthusiastic individuals like Sachin Shanbag, Payal Parija, Kevin Pereira, Rohit Pal, Naveen Somani and others. They were instrumental in the systematic and sustained increase of ISA's activities.
ISA Revolutions
In 2001, a democratically elected core committee of three members within the board was set up to aid the smooth transition of incoming and outgoing board members. The core became the guiding committee channeling the energies of an enthusiastic board, which started venturing into a newer and wider scope of activities. The first core committee comprised of Rohit Pal, Sachin Mittal and Naveen Somani. This was later succeeded by the committee of Sachin Mittal, Nimisha Srivastava and Divya Parambi. During the two years, ISA's involvement extended to social activities such as participation in the Kid's Fair and Goodness Day celebrations. Tarang, an ethnic dance party to kick off the winter semester, was added as a regular feature to the ISA calendar. India's Republic Day and Independence Day were celebrated by a short function on the Central Campus diag. ISA activities continued in the Spring/Summer term with organisation of camping trips and participation in volleyball and cricket tournaments.
As of today, ISA activities are handled by a new and enthusiastic board guided by the core committee comprising of Ashish Deshpande, Parag Dixit and Suchi Sethi. ISA has always been a voluntary organisation primarily meant to serve the interests of the Indian community on campus, binding it culturally and helping it to gel into the greater culture of university life in Ann Arbor. We are certain that we will be able to live up to the expectations of our creative and pioneering predecessors.
- September, 2003
Note: Most of the information for this article has been derived from the article "ISA: a historical perspective" by Salil Rege. The article appeared in ISA's yearbook, "Drishti", in November 1999.
Yun Hi Chala Chal
Fall 2003 witnessed the launch of a new look ISA website, the major credit for which goes to former board member Nikhil Joshi. In addition to providing comprehensive information for incoming students, it also included useful information about extracurricular activities and social events for existing members. The leisure section on the website, to showcase photography skills and literary works of members, also received good response. A full scale sports-meet weekend featuring Tennis, Badminton, Table-tennis, Volleyball and Cricket was held for the first time ever in 2003. It was so popular that it has become a regular event in the ISA calendar. Social events like the Yost Skate Night were also well received with over a 100 members participating.
The regular events like Diwali, Holi and Tarang grew in terms of participation and popularity. A camping trip to the Tahquamenon Falls and Whitefish Point Bay in the Upper Michigan Peninsula was organized in late summer. Coordinating the trip with about 30 people in 7 rented cars, especially with no cell phone signal in the UP, was an experience in itself. The summer camping trip, held for the second consecutive year now, has also become a regular part of the ISA calendar.
With over 80 new students coming in for the Fall 2004 semester, the housing
team had a busy time coordinating housing and airport pickups. ISA also saw
the spawning of various activity groups like ICMD, Surbahar, and Quizclub.
With some initial support from the ISA, they have now become independently
functioning groups.
The board structure was made more streamlined with definite portfolios assigned to the board members. With a large percentage of graduate students, ISA also became part of UMEC. At the end of the year 2004, the reigns were handed over to the core committee comprising of Srikanth Balaji, Shravanthi Gummadi and Raghuram Rangarajan. And ISA continues to march forward –‘ Yun Hi Chala Chal’
- Parag Dixit, Out-going Core member, March 2005