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Every chair is filled in the Student Senate. An atmosphere of respect and professionalism envelopes the room - an aspect of student life that is clearly lacking in Srikanth Sastry's home country.
Sastry says he has an innate sense of leadership, but that his ideas and abilities were suffocated in the confining restraints of local politics in Bangalora, India. There, student government at the University was, instead of being supported by administrative authorities, quietly surviving despite them.
At Texas A&M, Sastry, a computer science graduate student, works toward improving diversity on campus.
"I want to get the student population to embrace the diversity here - it's not going to change - it would serve everyone if we could learn to appreciate it," he said.
The senate is a branch of the Student Government Association, independently led by student leaders and supported by the official administration. One of its vital components, growing in strength, is the Diversity Committee.
Sastry is president of the International Graduate Student Association.
"I got in IGSA because I liked what they were doing," he said. "Others were trying to bring the culture here, but IGSA focused on real issues that international students face."
The group's adviser, Roemer Visser, said that Sastry had an energy level he could not match.
"He's been very successful in maintaining the organization's growth, communicating with people at the highest levels of administration," Visser said. "He has even reached out to undergraduates through SGA, and nobody has done that before."
Last fall, the organization spearheaded "Fusion Fiesta" along with the Hispanic President's Council and Asian President's Council.
Sastry said at A&M, each person lives in his own cocoon without realizing it. The main purpose of the event was to scour the campus and display all of its diversity while fusing the distinct cultures with A&M culture.
Sastry is also part of a task force of student leaders working to improve safety in the Northgate area.
"Several international students had been assaulted in the Northgate area last summer and fall," said Patrick Lukingbeal, senior environmental studies major and SGA's advocate for diversity. "We ... (worked) to combat the problems of assaults and alleged discrimination, and we've continued to work together with the city and police, increasing the police scene in this area, better lighting and more emergency telephones. We're also working on educational safety programs."
Sastry said he and other leaders reported these crimes to the College Station and Bryan city councils, and the police force has decided to follow up. Already, "Operation Safe Street" has formed to increase patrolling in the Northgate area - two officers on bikes and two officers in cars keep vigil.
Amanda Lanning, the speaker pro-tempore of the student senate, first encountered Sastry in a senate project.
"The University wanted to move the main meeting place for international students - the International Programming Office - off campus to Agronomy Road, a move that would be extremely inconvenient for them," Lanning said.
Lanning said she and Sastry succeeded in passing the bill to stop the move.
"He always has a different perspective than everyone else, a fresh perspective on almost everything you bring him - that's why he's so useful," Lanning said.
Sastry and the student task force are currently working to get Texas IDs for international students in order to help them adapt to their new homes and to help solve the issue of alleged discrimination and violence.
Though his life seems to revolve around international affairs, Sastry said he is also concerned with his personal development.
"I'm getting my Ph.D. in computer science, hoping to graduate in two or three years," he said. "I'll join a research lab in distributive systems, the coordination of a network of computers separated by geographical elements."
His accomplishments on campus have worked the same way - the coordination of people separated by geography.
Jim Carlson, the student body president, said he knows Sastry has the potential to make a lasting change, not just for international students but for the student body as a whole.
"He has a fire in his stomach to go out and help and be the first to speak up for them about the issues at hand," Carlson said. "He's a vocal, passionate, intelligent student leader, whose passion is about improving the situation for students. This campus will be better for it."
