Those students interested in Asian culture on campus have two clubs to join, but until now, there was not much differentiating one club from the other.

In a unanimous decision by members of the Student Government Association, the Loyola Mahjong Association became the Loyola Asian Culture Club, after club members requested the change in order to broaden the club’s goals and help differentiate it from another Asian club on campus, the Loyola Asian Student Organization.

Senate members presented the problem of the seemingly strong correlation between the two clubs before granting the request. Jonathan Lam, president of Loyola Asian Culture Club and biology junior, told the senate members that the two clubs have several differences.

“LASO focuses on a lot of community service, which is a good thing, but what we want to do is focus more on educating people about the cultural aspects,” Lam said.

The Loyola Asian Culture Club plans to hold their events entirely on campus so that they can broaden options for on-campus residents.

According to Lam, LASO organizes a Chinese New Year event at a church far from campus and many other events are held off campus as well, which presents a problem for many students.

“I think it would be interesting to see my culture being celebrated right on campus since I haven’t really celebrated Chinese New Year in quite a while,” said Jack Lien, mass communication senior.

The organization’s original intentions were to meet specifically to play a lot of Mahjong, a traditional Chinese tile game, which was used as a medium to expose the community to Asian cultures, Lam said.

Lam said he believes the club’s old name limited its goals and resulted in fewer members joining the club, which currently has about 20 members.

Since the club’s charter in fall 2010, several of their cultural events have been approved by SGA.

According to Brian Gibbons, SGA finance director and finance senior, the club has Asian movie nights that consist of watching movies with Asian food while they eat the food that they are watching.”

The club is currently planning many future events, including the Songkran Water Festival, a Thai holiday for water fights held in the spring.

“We are trying to find out the logistics of how that would work on campus because NOPD is not going to like that idea…You literally use water guns and water balloons to just douse people with,” Lam said.

Crystal Brotmeyer can be reached at [email protected]