Diversity issues are slowly inching their way into the student body and the curriculum.

However, amid the infiltration, students often might not consider the ways in which diversity can enrich their lives and enhance their futures.

Faculty Senate plans to submit legislation in the fall that will include a series of recommendations to split up the current Intercultural and International Competence Requirement (GI).

The split would create separate domestic and international components, Julia Simon, committee chair, said.

The split could require students to take six credits instead of the current three credits to fulfill the diversity requirement.

However, some courses will count as both international and domestic, so students might still only take three diversity credits to complete their degree program, she said.

While minority populations face social and economic struggles abroad, they often face very similar problems if they live in the United States, Simon said.

"One could say that diversity internationally is intimately related to the diversity within the [United States]," she added.

A more diverse student body creates not only a positive atmosphere for learning, but also helps to make students more marketable for jobs, Ed Escalet, minority admissions director, said.

"We see many of our students here going out of state for jobs," he said. "They will be in situations where they will have to work with a multitude of people from different backgrounds. If they can experience that here, then they're already a step ahead of the game."

Penn State's minority student population in 1992 was 7.9 percent and has continued to steadily increase.

In 2002, non-Caucasians composed 11.8 percent of the student population, Escalet said.

A greater minority applicant pool and a higher rate of college-bound high school students have caused the increase, Escalet said.

During the last three years, admission efforts have been focused on recruiting out-of-state minority students.

Penn State recruiters in New York, Maryland and New Jersey have aided in this endeavor, Escalet said.

Diversity in the curriculum may mean more than just changing the diversity requirement needed to graduate.

"Very few students have ever had to deal with LGBT issues in their high schools," said Sara Ryan, former Undergraduate Student Government director of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community and its allies affairs.

She added some students come from backgrounds where they are not exposed to people of different sexual orientations.

Ryan is working with student groups and administrators to create classes that address LGBT issues.

She said she eventually hopes an LGBT minor will be created.

As the student body continues to become more diverse, the increase in minorities attending Penn State has contributed to the building of a coalition between multicultural student groups, Ryan said.

"Different forms of oppression are intersecting," she said.

"We're all dealing with the same form of oppression -- it's just manifesting itself in different ways."