The AUSA Senate discussed its continuing commitment to diversity awareness by means of a diversity pledge to incorporate the values of the university at its meeting last Tuesday.

The pledge is sponsored by the AUSA Senate Diversity Committee, and although it has been written, it is still being revised and reviewed in terms of implementation in the community.

First Year Senator Troy Hashimoto discussed the necessity of executing the important pledge and the problem “how to make the pledge a reality, in terms of making people follow it.”

Second Year Sen. Aaron Schwartzberg and Kelsey Yamasaki emphasized the importance of achieving this implementation, and suggested incorporating the DU Community Cornerstones into the pledge.

By doing so, “We will make sure everyone and the values of the university are connected,” said Yamasaki, so that “incidents are not isolated into specific contexts.”

To this end, the entire Senate will be attending diversity training today in J-Mac directly before the meeting that will be held in the common room of the residence hall.

The relocation of the meeting to a residence hall is an attempt by the senators to connect with students who were perhaps unaware of the senate’s workings and to “give them an opportunity to voice their concerns, of whatever sort”, said Sen. Jamie Grim.

In addition to the diversity pledge, the Senate discussed the arrival of PeaceJam at DU in May and the 10th anniversary celebration of PeaceJam at DU in September.

In other news, the Provost Search Committee met again on Tuesday. The committee has narrowed down the pool of applicants from upwards of 110 to 10 finalists.

These finalists will be flown to Denver and interviewed at the airport, and finally three will be selected to come to DU and visit.

Senator Aaron Schwartzberg, the AUSA Student Liaison to the Provost Search Committee, shared his enthusiasm for all of the candidates.

“They are all very strong candidates, and any of the 10 would be a great addition to DU,” said Schwartzberg.