In an attempt to motivate senators to fulfill their diversity requirement in a timely and high-spirited manner, the Student Senate is strictly adhering to recent changes in its diversity bylaw.

Since the inception of the diversity bylaw during the first semester of the 2001-02 school year, apathetic sentiments have been a general consensus among many senators.

According to the bylaw, all student senators must take part in at least one event or program that promotes campus diversity. While the rationale behind this requirement is to promote diversity within the senate, many senate members feel this is not needed.

“There were a lot of senators who didn’t respond well to [the bylaw]. They felt that the requirement wasn’t necessary,” said Tiffany Shelton, a sophomore music education major and student senate member.

While Shelton herself thought the requirement was a good idea in order to get things started, she said there was a lack of motivation for senate members to participate in a culturally diverse event.

“We felt like we were already a diverse group, and we really wanted to get the student body involved,” Shelton said.

Beginning with this year, senate members cannot wait until the end of the semester to fulfill the diversity requirement. They must meet the requirement by midterm of the current semester.

“What we found is that a lot of the senators would procrastinate until the end of the semester to fulfill the requirement,” said senate member Dwight Nelson, a psychology major with teacher certification and co-author of the diversity bylaw.

This lack of priority, Nelson added, was killing the spirit of the bylaw.

In fact, during the spring semester, most senate members did not fulfill the diversity requirement until the latter weeks of April while attending the “Museum of Oppression” in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

While the length of time senate members have to meet the requirement has been shortened, the penalty for failure to do so has been considerably strengthened.

In lieu of receiving the equivalent of one absence from a committee meeting, Nelson said senators slammed with one senate meeting absence will be more likely to abide by the rules during the next semester.

With harsher regulations intact, Nelson hopes the diversity bylaw will “encourage senators, as well as the entire student body, to get out of their comfort zones and see how diverse this campus really is.”