After passage of a controversial diversity and inclusion resolution by the Georgia State University Student Government Association earlier this month, the institution is now planning to implement “diversity and inclusion” courses as well as various other unnamed but related assignments into its first- and second- year experience courses. Reaction is mixed.
“We would like to integrate diversity and inclusion throughout the curriculum to reinforce the importance of this at many levels of the curriculum,” Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Carl Reiber says. All students are required to take first and second year experience courses as part of their core curriculum.
GSU SGA Senator-at-Large Keyshawn Housey, members of the GSU National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and members of the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), a collaborative organization of African American fraternities and sororities, authored the resolution. It declares: “There is a lack of civil discourse about race, diversity, and inclusion due to a fear of backlash among faculty, staff, and students on this campus.”
So far, the only course offering that has been formally announced is LEAD 3900, in addition to “relevant diversity programs.” It is to be integrated into the common core curriculum in fall 2019. However, aside from establishing the course’s name, the resolution doesn’t provide any information regarding the structure of LEAD 3900. The authors only say that “the skills that this class provides are universal and can help determine the character of the student.”
“College is already expensive and stressful,” GSU sophomore Matthew Frost responded in an interview with the publication Campus Reform. “I can’t continue to pay for additional courses and spend valuable time sitting through courses where a professor is teaching people how to ‘be kind’ to each other. Parents should be teaching that at home, for free.”
“I am black and Filipino, and I think that this is one of those situations where, although the road is paved with good intentions, this was poorly executed,” junior Alfredo Small also told Campus Reform. “Being that this course is required, this is going to generate more dissent from students. Classrooms are not an organic way to teach people to accept others. You can’t map out social change. You can’t force it.”
