Bartley, nominee for DAC Chair, speaks to Student Union Senate on Wednesday night before being unanimously approved.

The council (DAC) was founded last spring because of a constitutional amendment. It stemmed from the Mother’s bar incident and is supposed to create an institutionalized focus on issues of diversity, as well as train diversity groups like Mixed, Connect4, SARAH and Uncle Joe’s, which are now more coordinated.

“[Part of what started the DAC] was a lot of people realizing [that] there were gaps in how the student body was approaching diversity,” Bartley said.

Bartley, who formerly served as public relations chair of the DAC, hopes that the DAC will serve as an advocacy body for students, an informational resource and a framework for creating and investigating policies, as well as encouraging diversity on campus.

Though DAC still has no mission statement, Bartley outlined the group’s goals as “continuing efforts to create an inclusive environment on campus.”

“I think it’s important that a national university reflects the nation, and that’s not necessarily what’s going on right now,” Bartley said.

Currently, Bartley is focused more on creating a structure than carrying out the DAC’s eventual functions.

“Right now our main focus is to define our structure,” Bartley said. “My goal is to solidify a structure that will be sustainable for the people that come after us, and we’re really starting from zero.”

Being able to move slowly to make the DAC something of an institution was part of the reason for making it a permanent part of SU.

The structure is also integral to carrying out its function. Last year, current senior Greg Schweizer, that year’s DAC chair, started to look into the ways that students self-segregate on campus.

“It was hard to take on such an ambitious project with something that had to be built from the ground up,” Schweizer said. “I think that the DAC is more complicated than people expect because it has no money and it has really ambitious goals, so I think that being able to hand off something that’s really refined and ready to go is top priority.”

Schweizer has since resigned his position because he felt like he didn’t have enough time to commit to the project. He is confident that Bartley will be successful in the position.

“Shana is incredibly passionate about diversity. She has great connections on campus and I think she’ll do a phenomenal job,” Schweizer said.

Though structure is a primary issue, Bartley does hope that students will approach the DAC.

“[Students] will have a body to go to and say that these are our concerns or they can come to us and say, ‘This is what happened to me, what can I do now?’” Bartley said.

In addition to helping out individual students, Bartley has already started looking into changes that can be made on campus.

The DAC is already looking into the having the admissions office provide brochures in different languages.

“Oftentimes families are part of these decisions, and we feel that incoming students should have these options to involve their families in a language that they’re comfortable with,” Bartley said.

“In my perspective, diversity is about collaboration as much as it is about a bunch of people being passionate,” she added. “It’s about getting multiple perspectives together to find something that’s really sustainable and effective at making change on campus.”

The DAC does not receive any funds from SU or other sources. It is currently seeking a sixth chair member. An application is available on SU website.