Armstrong Dean of Students Andrew Dies confirmed at a Statesboro Student Government Association senate meeting on Wednesday that transportation will be provided for students and their guests attending this semester’s graduation commencement ceremonies.

“The signup for transportation will be coming out soon,” Dies said. “We have contracted charter buses, so if you’re graduating in Savannah you’re gonna be able to take a bus from here to the convention center, and then Armstrong campus students that are graduating up here will be able to take a bus from the Armstrong campus up to here. That is for anybody. Students, family, guests.”

According to the university’s spring 2019 commencement FAQ page, buses will depart from the destination location 45 minutes after the ceremonies.

Update on SGA resolution against commencement changes

SGA President Jarvis Steele also spoke on Wednesday about what the next steps will be for the resolution calling for the reversal of the recent changes to Georgia Southern University’s commencement ceremonies.

The legislation was officially passed by both the Statesboro and Armstrong/Liberty campus SGAs as a unified senate at an SGA convention on March 2.

Steele provided an update on the next steps for the passed resolution.

“Next I pass it up to higher administration and I let them know that this is the legislation that says that this is what the students want,” Steele said. “This is what the Student Government Association has voted on, and this is what we think should happen instead. It’s an official endorsement that this is what student government association thinks should happen.”

Dies clarified that although the legislation calls for the changes to commencement this semester to be immediately reverted, university administration has no intention of doing so.

Dies said, “There have been no changes to the commencement plan. We are still going with the college-based ceremonies. Spring commencement’s locked in. I mean we are still open to hearing your feedback, but we are locked into the plan for the spring.”

Nathan Weaver, The George-Anne News Reporter, ganewsed@georgiasouthern.edu