Reflecting the continued debate about the role of diversity in Penn State's curriculum, the University Faculty Senate is again reviewing the requirement.

The Senate is not interested in adding or subtracting credits to the requirement.

Rather, it wants to ensure that the credits students are required to take are more meaningful.

For example, the Senate is considering splitting the requirement into domestic diversity and international diversity. This would expose students to a wider range of diversity issues.

In addition, the Senate is encouraging more colleges to offer diversity-focused courses. This would be helpful to students by allowing them to double count courses for their major and diversity courses. Also, it is a good idea for students to have the opportunity to explore diversity within their own fields.

But even more needs to be done to ensure that students are getting the most out of the diversity requirement.

Although the Senate does review which courses should and should not count, it is common knowledge that some diversity courses are much more rigorous than others. Perhaps individual colleges would be better able to decide which courses should count.

There are too many inconsistencies in which courses are considered diverse.

Why, for instance, does Political Science 454 (Government and Politics of Africa) count toward the diversity requirement but Political Science 458 (Government and Politics of East Asia) does not?

Forming a committee to review the requirement again is a good start.

Now it is up to Senate to fine-tune its policy to ensure that "diversity education" is fully, fairly and sensibly implemented.