Student Government Association senator-at-large Keyshawn Housey announced at this week’s SGA meeting that new material on diversity and inclusion is expected to be added to Georgia Southern University’s core curriculum starting in fall 2019.

This change comes as a result of the resolution proposed by Housey which passed in Nov. 2018. The resolution itself was a response to the “triggerish” incident which occurred over the summer and the protest which Housey also participated in.

Housey opened the meeting by laying out the work his task force has been doing to implement the changes promised in the legislation the senate passed. This task force includes SGA officials from both the Armstrong and Statesboro campuses, and is expected to continue working to test the new learning outcomes being implemented.

“As you all know, per the resolution that was passed by both the Armstrong and Statesboro senates, one of the key components was to implement diversity and inclusion within the core curriculum,” Housey said. “I am happy to say tonight that we are getting there. We have joined together to put together a set of learning outcomes which will deal with diversity, inclusion and engagement in not just the FYE courses but the second year experience courses.”

Housey listed the new learning outcomes being proposed, which touched on topics ranging from students acknowledging their own privilege, examining their own rights and responsibilities, and asking themselves if they are offending others.

“We have been charged as a task force with defining what is protected speech,” Housey said. “[At present] you can get away your entire college experience without having to take a single course regarding diversity and inclusion. We want to be able to test run this by the end of the semester so we can gain data before this fully rolls out in fall 2019.”

For more information regarding the FYE/SYE diversity and inclusion task force and the learning outcomes they have developed, click here.

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