Samira Abdoulaye-Pedila, Student Senate vice president of student affairs, discussed the rebooting of the Diversity Action Council during the Student Senate meeting Wednesday. 

Abdoulaye-Pedila said DAC was created due to multiple multicultural student organizations hosting similar events that had the potential to be one larger event co-sponsored by several organizations. 

“DAC was created to bring all of the multicultural organizations back together so that they could communicate and collaborate with each other,” Abdoulaye-Pedila said. 

Abdoulaye-Pedila said DAC fell out in 2010 due to a lack of activities on campus and said the reason the council is being brought back is because of the student-led Black Lives Matter movement to raise a BLM flag under the American Flag during African American Heritage Month last year. 

Abdoulaye-Pedila said Morgan Colvin, a junior political science major, and Keshyra Bluminberg, a junior English secondary education major, who both created the petition for the flag, are co-chairing DAC along with Abdoulaye-Pedila. 

“Our mission and our goal is to have those uncomfortable conversation that campus needs to start having and (find ways to) better support minority students,” Abdoulaye-Pedila said. “That’s what DAC is about.” 

Abdoulaye-Pedila said they are current working to find members for DAC. 

The council can have anywhere from 2 to 15 members. 

Abdoulaye-Pedila said she will be sending an email on Friday to students who said they were interested in being on the council. 

The decision for who will be on the council will be made sometime between Oct. 7 – 11.  

After the decision has been made an informational will be held with those who “will be a good representation for DAC to start having conversations,” according to Abdoulaye-Pedila. 

Abdoulaye-Pedila said she has ideas for the conversations they may have in the future. 

“There are some topics that I know that we have to talk about like safety for minorities students on campus, how we can better help them, what resources they need and basically what we can do to make it home for them here,” Abdoulaye-Pedila said. 

The senate also appointed 12 new senators Wednesday night. 

Six senate seats are still vacant. 

Student Body President Carson Gordon said students who are interested in applying for a senate seat can find a link on the student government’s social media pages for an online application or go to the Student Activity Center for a paper application. 

Gordon said she is looking forward to the upcoming semester. 

“I think it went well (tonight), it’s always really exciting to see new faces and to have new senators and from what I’ve seen so far they all have really great ideas, so it’s just exciting,” Gordon said.  

Gordon said she has many plans for the senate to get involved with the campus. 

“I’m not only looking forward to really focusing on these big picture issues like inclusivity and mental health and really starting to unite the campus again,” Gordon said. “I felt like last year it was divided and I don’t want it to be that way again.” 

Corryn Brock can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].