Mayor Jonathan McCollar is now teaching a diversity class at the Georgia Southern University Liberty campus as a member of the new diversity task force.

The Georgia Southern diversity task force is the result of a resolution proposed by Student Government Association senator Keyshawn Housey that SGA passed last November.

“I’m a part of [the diversity task force] in the capacity of professor and staff member with Georgia Southern and not in a mayoral role,” McCollar said. “I teach a class on the Georgia Southern Liberty campus called ‘Politics for Social Change.’”

McCollar’s class is a part of the First-Year Experience program and is given to first-year students as a way to introduce them into the GS culture, McCollar said.

McCollar said the class examines major social movements specific to the United States, such as the Civil Rights Movement and the recent social movements in Ferguson and Baltimore.

“My hope is that out of [the class], people can consider that they can bring about change within their community through the political process,” McCollar said.

McCollar said this is a topic he is personally interested in teaching, and he has an ultimate goal in mind for the class.

McCollar said, “The goal is to expose false barriers that people tend to put up, and these barriers may be centered around race, gender identity, religion, things of that nature. Ultimately, what I want the students to be able to see, beyond knowing that they can bring about change in their communities through the political process, but knowing that we are connected in a greater sense through that fabric called ‘humanity.’”

SGA president Jarvis Steele declined to comment on how the diversity task force will affect the GS Statesboro campus, and Housey was unable to be reached for comment.

Elizabeth Gross, The George-Anne News Reporter, ganewsed@georgiasouthern.edu