Anybody who attended SMU last year knows how many times the editorial board, columnists and Daily Campus in general covered diversity and minority retention. The issue of diversity and minority student recruitment was a major platform of all four candidates running for student body president, and the concern elicited a town hall meeting in April where statistics on minority retention were presented. Diversity was a concern expressed very vocally by many students last year.

Unfortunately, Student Senate has yet to appoint a chair or a meeting time for this year’s Diversity Committee.

The effort to find an effective chair for such an important position should be appreciated. However, almost every other chair position has been filled, and with very capable people. Considering the concerns that officers expressed last year, the position of Diversity Committee chair should have been filled already.

A commentary written at the end of last semester by Leandre Johns (“So many concerns: minorities,” May 3, 2002) used a survey conducted last year by the Student Representatives to the Board of Trustees to show how important diversity is to the student body. Ninety-six percent of participants answered that they believed ethnic diversity enhances the overall experience of college. On another part of the survey, students gave an average score of 4.32 (on a scale of 1-10) when asked how much ethnic diversity they thought SMU displays. It is obvious that students want greater attention paid to diversity, and we cannot let a changing of the guard in senate deter us from pursuing this problem.

The editorial board urges anybody who cares about the problem of diversity at SMU to flood the Student Activities Center (3rd floor, Hughes-Trigg Student Center) today demanding senate chair applications. Additionally, the senate is urged to fill this very important position immediately so that we can continue fighting for what was started last year.