The University Senate, which discusses topics pertinent to university-wide governance and includes students, faculty and staff, gathered Thursday for its last meeting of the 2012-2013 academic year.

NYU President John Sexton called the meeting to order and introduced the first topic on the Senate’s agenda, a report on campus safety and emergency preparedness that came in the immediate aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings.

“This is not just another administrative report,” Sexton said. “I ask that you all really attend to this.”

Alison Leary, executive vice president for operations at NYU, delivered the presentation. Smith discussed campus safety, security and natural disaster response, among other topics. She put a special focus on personal preparedness.

“Even at their homes away from campus, we want students to feel like they know what to do in times of emergency,” Smith said.

After the presentation, Sexton answered two questions submitted by students before the meeting. The first concerned NYU’s definition of the word “diversity,” to which Sexton replied that the university defines the word in the broadest possible way.

“We believe a big part of the education here occurs in the interaction between the students,” Sexton said. “The more diverse the student body, the more experience we can bring in.”

The second question asked Sexton to offer advice to students on the topic of governance. Sexton chuckled when he read the question aloud to the Senate, and said it would be an understatement to say the NYU community has had a robust conversation about governance this past year.

“Voice is more than everybody speaking at once,” Sexton said. “We have to find structures that encourage orderly dialogue in a complex group, where opinions are strongly held.”

Following the question and answer session, the Senate’s various standing committees provided updates on their respective areas of governance. The most contentious discussion came during a report by the Committee of Organization & Governance, which had recently conducted a survey asking non-tenure track faculty if they felt they should be represented in university governance.

Though approximately 93 percent of voters said they wanted representation, the survey was widely derided by faculty members who said it was created solely by tenured staff and should have asked specifically what kind of representation non-tenure track professors wanted.

“We decided to create a new survey which includes an ‘other’ option that allows participants to specify what type of representation they want,” said Warren Jelinek, a member of the Committee of Organization & Governance.

In the final portion of the meeting, Sameer Jaywant, chairperson of international affairs at the University Senate, gave a presentation on the International Ambassador Program, a new program that establishes student government at NYU’s study away sites.

“We have two mandates: serve the needs of the international community here at NYU New York, and foster student government at the study away sites,” he said.

Billy Richling is a staff writer. Email him at [email protected].

DISCLAIMER: Sameer Jaywant is opinion editor at the Washington Square News.