Catwalks, musical performances, fashion and culture: IU Student Government’s Student Life Committee plans to combine all of these into an International Fashion Show celebrating the different cultures at IU — the first of its kind.
The fashion show is just one of the new programs the committee is planning for the semester.
The team is looking to present the international fashion show, create a women’s section in one of the gyms on campus and do a helmet giveaway for scooter-riding students, among other projects.
The Student Life Committee might be the broadest committee on IUSG, said Maggie Hopkins, IUSG vice president of administration.
This year’s IUSG administration grouped the academic affairs and student affairs committees together to better take on an wider array of issues and projects, Hopkins said.
“Anything that comes up that is within our scope we are willing to hear and willing to address in whatever way we can,” said Amna Ahmed, co-chief of the Student Life Committee.
The projects the Student Life Committee undertakes vary in topic but all aim to better student life at IU, Ahmed said.
“I wanted to be involved in something that has depth and long-term commitment," she said. "I’m proud to be on a team of go-getters.”
Ahmed, her co-chief Ayinde Rochon and their committee chose these projects as their main goals for the semester, but the team said it is looking to address anything it can to help students.
“The people that are in IUSG, they care," Ahmed said. "It’s not about resume building, it’s not about ‘Oh look at what I got done,’ it’s about actually having an impact in helping students."
International Fashion Show
IUSG is presenting its first International Fashion Show with multicultural performances this spring. It is planned for 7 to 9 p.m March 25 in the Indiana Memorial Union Alumni Hall.
“We want to create an opportunity to get people who aren’t usually in the same room in the same room and looking at what we all have to bring to the table,” Ahmed said.
Ahmed said she is talking to multiple student associations and organizations about the event, hoping to partner with some of them to promote it and make it the best it can be.
Groups and models will choose what they want to wear and how they want to present their culture, Ahmed said.
“We’re hoping that they come in with an idea of how they want to express themselves and how they want everyone else to understand their own culture,” she said.
Ahmed said there will also be an opportunity to perform a song, dance, poem or anything else students feel represents their culture accurately.
“The International Fashion Show is probably the biggest project that the Student Life Committee is working on, and it is one that we are really excited about as an entire student government executive branch,” Hopkins said.
Women’s section in the gym
One Student Life Committee goal for the semester is to designate a women’s section in the Student Recreational Sports Center, though logistics are still being worked out, Ahmed said.
“A lot of women don’t feel like they’re particularly welcomed in more male-dominated areas of the gym,” she said. “Just having a safer space for female students to be able to work out and feel comfortable and be able to balance their lives with their physical and mental health is really important.”
Helmet Giveaway
The committee is also discussing potentially giving away helmets to emphasize student safety in the wake of e-scooters taking over campus.
They wanted to do this in the fall, but weren’t able to get the program off the ground quickly enough before e-scooter companies removed their scooters from campus for the winter, Hopkins said.
Hopkins is hoping to work with Student Life to have a helmet giveaway sponsored by IUSG to encourage safe riding habits, she said.
