BOND’s new co-chair comes on the heels of another change to the group—a new name.

Subin and Ocean had changed the group’s name earlier this semester, from Beyond Our Normal Differences to Building on Diversity, retaining the same acronym.

“Beyond Our Normal Differences was a bit ambiguous, cheesy, not catchy and no one knew what it meant,” Subin said.

Describing the name change as “incidental,” Subin said the group would try to be more active this year while remaining apolitical.

“BGLTSA is more prominent, while we want to be more low-key and discreet about who’s coming,” he said. “We need to remain apolitical so that students without a political stance can feel comfortable.”

Though BGLTSA and BOND have enjoyed cordial relations recently, the name Beyond Our Normal Differences had drawn ridicule in the past from BGLTSA leaders.

In an interview with The Crimson in February 2000, Michael K.T. Tan ’01, co-chair of the BGLTSA in 1999, said BOND failed to take seriously the fact that “normal differences” are part of people’s identities.

People searching for commonality, said Tan—BGLTSA’s self-proclaimed “grand empress”—should engage those differences instead of “ignoring them like idiots.”

—Staff writer Ravi P. Agrawal can be reached at agrawal@fas.harvard.edu.