A piece of legislation designed to establish a standing Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Senate diversity committee was killed at Tuesday night's meeting.

The legislation, which would amend USG Senate bylaws to allow for the new committee, was introduced at the end of last semester and tabled for discussion twice.

Senate first suspended a vote on the legislation due to improper wording, and then tabled a second draft over a disagreement on the proposed committee's name, Town Sen. Steven Weiss said.

No one motioned to bring the legislation to the table Tuesday, which resulted in it being killed indefinitely, Weiss said. The proposed amendment will not be brought back to USG Senate for discussion, unless a senator drafts a new piece of legislation.

Since last semester, Weiss, the legislation's author, has not worked on revising it, he said. He does not plan on rewriting it since his feelings about the committee changed over the summer, he said.

"I almost think it should be an ad hoc committee or nothing at all," Weiss said.

The committee is unnecessary since an executive board for multicultural affairs already exists, Weiss said. He doubted a standing USG Senate committee would communicate and coordinate with the executive body, he added.

Town Sen. John Krohn, a former cosponsor and supporter of the legislation, also appeared to have changed his views. Speaking in opposition to it during last week's meeting, Krohn said, "I think making a new committee at this time would be foolish."

Other senators believe a standing diversity committee would be beneficial.

Town Sen. V.A. Lopes, whose entire platform dealt with the issue of diversity at Penn State, and Town Sen. Maya McGeathey have been working on a new amendment and hope to bring it to the table during next week's USG Senate meeting, Lopes said.

Lopes said she feels a diversity committee for USG Senate is extremely important, since both USG Senate and the executive branch of USG needs its own committee to create a balanced system more representative of the student body.

"The executive appointments are not made by the students," she said.

Since a senator would chair the potential diversity committee, it would act more in the interest of students, Lopes said.

If a new amendment mandating the creation of a diversity committee were to pass, Lopes said she would like to chair the new committee. A general lack of interest in chairing the committee was part of the reason why Senate originally tabled the currently dead legislation, she added. "Senate needs something to fall back on, which is this committee," Lopes said.

Black Caucus President David Davis said he does not believe an additional committee to deal with diversity in the student government will accomplish much. Davis has faith that the executive board will deal sufficiently with the issue, he said.