Freshmen scrambled to attend campus multicultural events at the beginning of last week to fulfill the Essential NU requirement.

The deadline for the final portion of Essential NU, a series of multicultural programs all new students must attend, was Feb. 21. The original deadline for the diversity requirement fell during Fall Quarter but was extended to better accommodate all new students.

“While there was a great deal of diversity-related programming in the Fall Quarter, there were not enough events to physically accommodate all the new students,” said Jen Meyers, orientation and student transitions coordinator.

Meyers said extending the deadline allowed for participation in Martin Luther King Jr. Day programming in January. The new deadline also encouraged participation in the Multicultural Center’s Diversity Symposium at the end of February and events related to Black History Month.

But for many students, the extension encouraged procrastination and time-crunching. Failure to fulfill any of the of the Essential NU requirements resulted in a registration hold, which meant new students were unable to schedule classes for Spring Quarter without verified attendance at an approved program. Meyers said the office does not yet know how many students had their registration held.

According to the Essential NU Web site, students who did not meet the diversity requirement will need to write a paper on diversity issues on college campuses.

Weinberg freshman Mike Schieber waited impatiently for James Turner’s speech on Feb. 20 to begin.

Turner, who led a 1967 protest that spurred the creation of the African American studies department and the Black House at NU, spoke as part of the Black History Month series.

Schieber said attending the event was making it difficult for him to finish everything he needed to do that night.

“I’m not really interested in this, and it’s putting me really behind on my schoolwork,” Schieber said.

Some students, such as Weinberg freshman Sandra Dickison, planned ahead but just happened to select a program that fell very close to the deadline.

“I realized about a month ago that I had forgotten about the diversity requirement, and this one seemed interesting,” Dickison said.

Many students mentioned that most of the speeches or events intended for Essential NU weren’t exciting or were too generic to hold their attention.

Weinberg freshman Kat Tyree said James Turner was a good option because the firsthand account of a historical event on NU’s campus was more relevant to the audience.

“It was a good lecture because it pertained to NU. Some of them were way too broad,” Tyree said.

Last week, the Multicultural Center’s Diversity Symposium drew a large freshmen crowd.

Tiffany Sakato, a Medill senior and the symposium’s event management chairwoman, said she didn’t notice a difference in the audience’s response, but said there were students who obviously came to fulfill the diversity requirement.

“We all know that students procrastinate, and there were students who clearly needed to make sure they were on the list or that their cards got swiped,” Sakato said.

Reach Kristyn Schiavone at [email protected].