GUSA met Wednesday night to review the Student Commission for Unity’s recommendations to expand diversity and understanding on campus. These propositions mark the completion of SCU’s research over the past 10 months, which considered and analyzed patterns of discrimination on Georgetown’s campus.

According to the SCU’s charter, the senate had to approve the recommendations before they could be formally presented to the administration.

The first major initiative calls for the creation of an “equity through diversity” cross-listing curriculum requirement for all undergraduates. According to the recommendations, students would be required to take two courses that would fulfill existing general education requirements with elements of religious, cultural, social and political diversity, according to the student association’s Student Commission for Unity Executive Summary. The proposition also called for increased efforts to recruit and tenure a more diverse faculty. Though this proposition was ultimately struck down, a second proposition, calling for a pilot program of one-credit, student-led courses in “diverse studies” was unanimously approved.

GUSA Senator Irina Varela (MSB ’11) said SCU’s proposed changes are necessary because there is a recognizable lack of diversity on campus.

“Obviously there is a problem [at Georgetown] – this is why Chairman and Principle Investigator Brian Kesten [(COL ’10)] took the time out of his life to show us that there was a problem,” she said. “We need to stop thinking subjectively and start thinking about what is for the good of the university.”

Senator Matt Wagner (SFS ’11) said he is hesitant to add additional requirements to students’ already heavy load.

“It’s hard for me to vote to fundamentally change the purpose or the focus of someone’s education in an educational institution,” he said. “By giving students the opportunity to come to an educational institution and choose their own classes, it may be unfortunate that they don’t take as many social classes as they could – but that’s part of education.”

The second major initiative, calling for increased marketing and visibility for the Bias Reporting System, was approved after very brief discussion.

ajor initiative three, however, faced more criticism from the GUSA senators.

Proposition one, which called for mandatory diversity training for all club presidents, passed.

Proposition two, which asked for $10,000 to fund “collaboration of unlike groups,” failed to pass.

Proposition three, which passed with minimal debate, states that resident advisers will be trained to create a more inclusive environment on their floors and to generate creative programming ideas focused on diversity, according to the executive summary.

Finally, major initiative four, which contains two propositions aimed at increasing the number of minority students at Georgetown and the amount of collaboration between students of different social groups, passed through the senate. While the second proposition had initially called for “deliberately creating diverse residential experiences,” Kesten struck the item before debate began.

Kesten said he was disappointed with some of the senate’s changes, particularly given the senate’s limited involvement in the SCU’s work over the last 10 months.

“Unfortunately, the senate failed to take SCU’s research into account when weighing the recommendations and made changes based on a superficial understanding of university resources and the best practices of competitive universities,” he said. “Only one senator worked on a research team, while only five of the 35 senators attended SCU’s full research presentation. When it came time to vote on the propositions, most were voted on without allowing SCU to present the initiatives or correct misunderstandings from the body.”

Keston added that SCU will evaluate how to address GUSA’s changes over the weekend – while keeping intact the research performed by students as well as SCU’s commitment to a Jesuit vision of social justice and equity.

Senator Johnny Solis (SFS ’11) said he had mixed feelings about the senate’s conclusions.

“I thought what we saw [Wednesday] night was good and bad at the same time. Good because we had the ability to call the SCU our own – it was born out of the senate and has become extremely successful. However, last night was bad because we saw a butchering of its recommendations . by individuals who had not been a part of the research at all, [except] Stephanie Frenel (SFS ’12) and Chris Pigott (COL ’12), and who were therefore not as qualified to water down the propositions of the SCU,” he said. “What was most disappointing to me was the senate’s disapproval of the second element of the first proposition, which advocated for recruiting, retaining and tenuring more racial minority professors. Georgetown’s lack of racial diversity in the faculty is disheartening and unfortunate and a serious problem – and it is a disappointing that GUSA did not take into account this need for different perspectives.”

Senate Speaker Reggie Greer (COL ’09) said he believes the completion of the SCU’s work marks a historic moment for the university.

“Student commissions are something we’ve fought for, for a long time, and we’re actually voting on the recommendations of our first student commission [tonight],” he said. “10 to 20 years down the line, [people are] going to look back and say, here’s where it all started.”

Though GUSA had not yet signed off on the report, the SCU publicly introduced its research findings and recommendation in a ceremony in Gaston Hall last Tuesday. As a result, the administration received copies of the recommendations before GUSA had the opportunity to finalize them.

University spokesperson Julie Bataille said she believes SCU’s propositions will inspire important dialogues among students and administrators.

“The SCU report looks at a broad range of diversity and unity issues and its recommendations can deepen the university’s understanding of these issues and inform important and ongoing work,” she said. “The data must now be shared with the appropriate offices and units so that it can inform existing mechanisms to address individual recommendations.”

Bataille said that administrators have the SCU’s original recommendations, and she did not know how university officials would address GUSA’s changes.

“I’m not sure what happened [regarding] GUSA and this issue either so you can check in directly with GUSA about their process, but I don’t anticipate any action there to change the fact that university administrators appreciate the thoughtful approach to diversity issues that this effort represents,” she said.

Associate Provost Marjory Blumenthal, who said she received regular status reports and offered occasional suggestions during SCU’s research, believes it was critical that the commission emphasized academic life in its recommendations. She said she is excited about moving forward with the new data.

“I look forward to participating in the larger conversation about other kinds of changes that is stimulated by this work,” Blumenthal said. “I hope all students both look at what was, in essence, an independent group research project and see what they can learn from it.”

She added that having GUSA review the SCU’s propositions fosters more discussion among students and that this assessment, along with the report, will help initiate future action.

Solis emphasized that he hopes the SCU will continue to push for its original propositions and not back down.

“At the end of the day, Georgetown is a great university with amazing people, both students, faculty and staff, yet at the same time Georgetown is still stuck in the past,” he said. “It is a shame that many of my fellow senators would choose to ignore the hard work put in by the 50-plus members of the SCU; I can only hope that the SCU will push forward with its original recommendations.”

-Hoya Staff Writer Kathleen Nahill contributed to this report.

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