Senate reaffirmed its commitment to safety and minority concerns Thursday night by passing resolutions encouraging increased safety measures and a more diverse student body.

In response to the rape on East Green Sunday night, East Green Senator Heather Wakefield and Women's Affairs Commissioner Eleni Zulia drafted a resolution encouraging the university to make campus safety a budget priority and challenging administration members to expand the campus escort service and improve street lighting.

"This is only the first step," Zulia said. "(Campus safety) has to be a long-term priority."

Senate needs to devise a strategy to take further action, she said.

The Safety Committee is creating surveys gauging student interest in safety. Results from the survey will be used to lobby administrators for funding to expand off-campus to off-campus escort service and to increase the number of street lights.

"We need to be relentless with this," Zulia said. "People won't listen until we get in their face."

Last year, the University Planning Advisory Committee, the body that hears requests for budget increases, rejected a proposal to increase funding for campus safety measures, Wakefield said.

In another safety-oriented resolution, senate commended Alden Library for taking safety actions, such as hiring two students to patrol the building and adding emergency phones on the sixth and seventh floors to prevent any further sexual assaults in the library.

Sexual assaults occurring in the library were reported to OU Police Department last year.

"The issue is that this kind of thing (sexual assaults in the general stacks) is going on," said Sako Eaton, International Affairs Commissioner. "Fewer students are going into the stacks as a result."

The resolution recommended the library take further actions, such as hiring additional security, making name tags for all library employees and leaving lights in the stacks on at all times.

Senate also pledged, in a resolution, to actively involve itself in efforts to create a more diverse student body.

The resolution serves as a sign that senate is concerned about diversity and a way to support efforts of Black Affairs Commission and the Minority Affairs Commission, Senator At-Large Jim Davey said.

Plans to increase senate's role might include sponsoring different minority-oriented programs or writing letters encouraging minority recruitment, Davey said.