Penn State President Graham Spanier urged the University Faculty Senate yesterday to complete its work on the Intercultural and International Competence (GI) requirement in light of recent events involving the College Republicans.

"The current GI requirement is too broadly defined and its focus needs to be narrowed," Spanier said.

Controversial pictures posted on the Web site of College Republican chair Brian Battaglia raised concerns regarding the effectiveness of the GI requirement.

"The recent bias underscores the continuing need to educate students about multiculturalism," Spanier said. "The incident was very disturbing to me and everyone else in the administration."

Christopher Bise, chair for the Faculty Senate, said the Senate asked itself what it wants students to get out of the GI requirement.

"We want to make sure the course makes everyone so they can analyze their place in the world," he said. "We want students to grow."

A conference committee of Senate members has been created to evaluate the GI requirement, Bise said.

"It's a temporary ad hoc panel formed to seek compromise," Bise said.

The Undergraduate Education Committee sponsors the conference committee with strong support from the Curricular Affairs Committee.

"The Senate wants strong support from both committees," he said.

Bise said members of both committees have been involved but there have been some points of disagreement.

"To get beyond [the disagreements] I decided to pull groups from each committee to resolve the issues," Bise said.

The Senate wants to see information about changes to the GI requirement in February so there is progress by the end of the spring semester, Bise said.

"If you don't have support, you don't have the emphasis," Bise said.

During the Senate meeting, Spanier also answered concerns regarding the movement of the Dickinson Law School.

Winston Richards, senator from Penn State Harrisburg, asked Spanier if Harrisburg was considered a possible option as a new location for Dickinson.

Spanier said the university thought about several locations for Dickinson, but narrowed it down to two places.

"[The university] decided that the Dickinson Law School should either stay at Carlisle or move to University Park," he said.

Given a lot of issues concerning utilities, infrastructure and libraries, among other things, Spanier said Carlisle and University Park are the two smartest moves.