Last weekend's freshman orientation activities featured a new element — a mandatory diversity video.

The Office of Residence Life wasted no time with its program, showing the 20-minute video Sunday night, followed by a scheduled discussion.

Brian Minarcik (junior-premedicine), a resident assistant in Tener Hall, said the video was a broad look at diversity at Penn State.

"(The video was) focusing on how we are trying to better our students' diversity learning," Minarcik said.

There was also a follow-up discussion planned, but not many students voiced their opinions, Minarcik said. He thought the low participation could be attributed to students' recent arrival, because they didn't know each other and probably weren't comfortable speaking in front of the group.

"We wanted to show it right away as an opportunity from the university to hit students with these issues right away," Barry Bram, associate director of Residence Life said.

Kim Greene (freshman-advertising) said seeing the video on her first night at Penn State was a good idea.

"We needed to see it," she said. "In 20 minutes, you can't get too much out of anything though, but I thought that it was well-made."

Greene said the discussion had a positive effect, allowing the students to voice their opinions.

Part of the discussion featured what the video did not — last spring's racial issues.

"We didn't get a whole lot into the events of last year. The e-mail sent to (former Black Caucus President) Lakeisha Wolf was explained a little, but only when brought up by some upper-class residents living in East Halls," Minarcik said.

Rubina Javeri, the Undergraduate Student Government community education director, saw the video on the Pennsylvania Cable Network. She said the video would have a positive effect on the freshmen who saw it.

"The video will set the precedent that Penn State is committed to diversifying," Javeri said.

She also said she thought it would create a more welcoming environment for everybody.

To determine the impact of this program, the university will survey the resident assistants and students to assess their reaction to the video.

Bram added that Residence Life still is in the process of getting feedback and also has talked about having follow-up programs to continue this dialogue.

"I think that this is a very good start and sets the tone for what's to come this year," Javeri said.