MSA and DISCO presented at the Feb. 3 UNITY Roundtable meeting to join the organization. Photo courtesy of UNITY
On Feb. 3, UNITY Roundtable voted to add two more organizations to the group, the Muslim Student Association and the Disability Coalition. UNITY Roundtable is the governing body of multicultural groups on campus and consists of 12 different groups who share the common goal of working towards inclusion and educational opportunities amongst multicultural organizations.
Morgan Ryan, the president of DISCO, is excited to bring the voices of students with disabilities to UNITY.
“The disability community has a really rich culture, and we believe that brings a lot of value and valuable perspectives to multicultural organizations such as UNITY,” Ryan said. “We wanted to join this organization because we wanted to be part of this group that tries to uplift marginalized folks on our campus.”
Imman Yimer, the president of MSA, had a slightly different reason for MSA requesting to join UNITY.
“We [MSA] realized that we needed a group on campus that could help us with collaborating with other multicultural organizations and getting the word out about our group,” Yimer said. “We realized that we don’t have many Muslim people on campus, and we are a pretty small group. We thought it would be nice if we had other communities that could help us out with planning and creating ideas for events and collaborations.”
Ryan founded DISCO, and has been a registered student organization since the spring of 2024. Ryan hopes that being a part of UNITY will give DISCO the opportunity to help members learn about disability and accessibility.
“We are hoping to be able to provide resources and information on accessibility to everyone involved in Roundtable,” Ryan said. “It meant a lot to us to be recognized by this group that does a lot of great work on campus.”
MSA has been an RSO since the spring of 2023. Yimer joined the group at that time.
“We didn’t have too much going on at the start,” Yimer said. “Last year, we had our first big event, our Iftar dinner during Ramadan. I’m really excited to have more events this semester.”
MSA consists of nine members, which is why Yimer felt getting support from UNITY was important.
“I feel like not only can we benefit from being a part of UNITY, but they can benefit from us as well,” Yimer said. “A lot of our members are commuters, so we can come and bring different connections to these other multicultural organizations.”
Yimer also hopes that being a part of UNITY helps educate students on Islam as well.
“We have a religious aspect to our group but also a cultural aspect to our organization,” Yimer said. “Muslims come from all over the world but there are similar things we have in common.”
Yimer looks forward to organizing more events this semester. MSA will be hosting its second annual Iftar Dinner on March 12.
MSA meets biweekly in Aliber 102 on Mondays at 4:00 p.m.
DISCO meets every other Saturday from 1:30-2:30 p.m. at the Harkin Institute.