Next year’s freshmen will see an overhauled diversity Essential NU program, administrators said this week.

It will be the third major change to Essential NU’s diversity requirement since the requirement was added in 2001.

“I just feel that there’s not enough quality control (over the program),” University President Henry Bienen told The Daily on Tuesday. “It’s not thought control. It’s quality control.”

Administrators said they haven’t decided what the new diversity requirement would look like, but it will be completely different from the current program.

Some possible changes include required readings or a required book with discussion sections on the topic of diversity, said Dean of Students Mary Desler.

Administrators hope the revamped diversity component would unite freshmen in a standard program. As it stands now, students choose from an array of speakers or events that fulfill the diversity requirement.

The requirement sparked a firestorm this year after some students complained about an Essential NU lecture by former Illinois Congressman Paul Findley. The Oct. 7 speech, sponsored by the Muslim-cultural Students Association, sharply criticized American policy toward Israel.

Bienen said the lecture revealed a need to re-evaluate the current diversity requirement. This is not because Essential NU events might be controversial, he said, but because there is no way to ensure their quality.

“It’s not just a question of whether you get a speaker like Mr. Findley, who may say objectionable things,” Bienen said. “We have free speech on this campus so if somebody wants to invite Mr. Findley to come back next Tuesday, he can come back next Tuesday if he’s duly invited. The question is what we’re using for requirements … It is whether we’re getting a quality talk.”

NU introduced a diversity requirement to the Essential NU program in 2001 after an incident of bias occurred against a student in the spring. At the time, Essential NU — then called “Responsibility Sessions” — consisted of three topics: safety, sexual assault and student health.

The bias incident led some students to ask administrators for an additional session about diversity. The fourth session, consisting of a speaker and small-group discussions, was added that fall.

But since then, NU has not settled on an effective way to teach freshmen about diversity, administrators said.

In 2002 Student Affairs decided to invite a pricey theater troupe to perform a diversity-themed sketch. But only one actor showed up for the show and the performance was a flop, Desler said.

“Even I could hardly sit through it, and I had to sit through seven of them,” Desler said.

In 2003 the current diversity program — where students choose from a selection of university-sanctioned events — was introduced.

The program worked well the first year, Desler said, and it was brought back this fall.

But Findley’s lecture has led administrators to rethink the diversity requirement yet again.

“Nobody set out to hurt people or create controversy,” Desler said. “On the other hand, we did.”

Reach Dan Strumpf at [email protected].