Yet, Rao said she and her classmates feel safe at Harvard and are more concerned about the safety of South Asians elsewhere.

“I’d like to believe people on campus know who we are, and we’re the same people we were before the attacks,” Rao said.

Rao and Kulkarni said that some South Asians, worried that their similar appearance might lead some of them to be mistaken for Muslims, have made a point of saying they are not Muslims—hoping that will protect them from retaliation. But the SAA plans to hold a joint panel discussion with HIS, emphsizing safety fears common to Muslims and non-Muslims.

The SAA also allied itself with the Harvard Initiative for Peace and Justice rally on Thursday and a discussion on safety for South Asians at MIT tonight.

—Staff writer Andrew S. Holbrook can br reached at holbr@fas.harvard.edu.