Punishment has not proven to promote diversity among Student Senate members; however, new legislation intends to make the punishment worse.

Last November, Student Senate passed a motion to punish any senate member who did not fulfill a requirement to attend one diversity-themed event per semester.

Failure to fulfill the diversity requirement is the equivalent of one committee absence, which is a third of the penalty for missing a senate meeting.

Generally, senate members are punished using attendance policies related to committee meetings and senate meetings.

Three absences from committee meetings equal one senate meeting abscence and three senate meeting absences result in removal from senate.

For the diversity punishment to be effective, a senate member would have to miss the diversity requirement plus eight committee meetings, or miss the diversity requirement plus two senate meetings and two committee meetings.

Student Government members are currently debating a motion that would increase the punishment for failure to fulfill diversity requirements to equal one senate meeting. This would make the punishment three times more severe.

With one week left in the semester, only six of the 23 members of the Student Senate have fulfilled the diversity requirement. Two other senate members had fulfilled the requirement but have since resigned.

Committee Chair of Diversity Affairs, Shonda Clancy, said Student Senate members aren’t worried about fulfilling the requirement because the current penalty is too light.

According to Clancy, another problem has been that senate members wait until the end of the semester to fulfill diversity requirements, which defeats the purpose of discussing the events in Student Government meetings throughout the year.

Clancy said the feedback from senate members who have fulfilled thier diversity requirement has been good.

“One person went to a Christian fellowship meeting. They really enjoyed it and continued to go when they were only required to go once,” Clancy said.

Clancy said next year the Diversity Affairs Committee plans to bring back “Putting the Pieces Together,” a panel discussion dealing with issues like race and any other concerns that arise in the meetings.

“Then we come up with plans and solutions…whatever we need to rectify these problems,” Clancy said.

Clancy said the purpose of the motion calling for harsher punishment regarding diversity requirements is to make senate members more committed.

Clancy also said the student senate has to show a committment to diversity before they can expect students to do the same.