PULLMAN—ASWSU passed a new bill Wednesday aiming to improve diversity and outreach to multicultural committees and other student organizations.

The senate appointed Rebecca Ly as the new director of diversity yesterday along with passing the bill.

Among improving outreach efforts the bill, B43-12, will expand and reorganize the diversity department in ASWSU, filling in holes past diversity directors had issues with. 

According to the bill document, there will be an added emphasis to assessment and research issues on campus for topics such as race, gender, sexuality, and more.

“I think it’s great they passed it,” said Ryan White, chair of the Council of Multicultural Student Presidents. “I think there should be base guidelines the director should follow.”

One of the issues the ASWSU diversity department faces is a lack of communication among multicultural committees. Ten of the 12 main committees of ASWSU are considered multicultural, which makes for a massive group of students to look out for.

“For ASWSU it should be encouraged to participate in diversity efforts, there has been an inconsistency year to year,” Sen. Lakecia Farmer said.

Sen. Jake Montano said the diversity department could further serve as a liaison to help direct students to find resources on topics they are concerned about.

“The importance of this is to create a department that isn’t necessarily one position but multiple,” Montano said. “It’s a university of over 30,000 people, it’s extremely large and it’s very difficult to get one person to sit down and handle 100 people in a day; we want to make sure all the main groups are being touched on and not overlooked.”