GE Implementation Task Force

Dear faculty and staff,

Thank you for all your work as we prepare for the start of our GE 5 program for students entering in fall 2023. For an update on these efforts, please see Provost Lyman's October 2022 Report to Faculty.

We write with information and guidance about courses intended for the GE 5 Diversity: Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice (DEISJ) area. The student learning outcomes (SLOs) are:

Students will:

describe the historical and contemporary societal factors that shape the development of individual and group identity involving race, class, and gender;
analyze the role that complex networks of social structures and systems play in the creation and perpetuation of the dynamics of power, privilege, oppression, and opportunity; and
apply the principles of rights, access, equity, and autonomous participation to past, current, or future social justice action.

SUNY has made it clear that any course approved for the DEISJ area must meet all three SLOs. Note that the first SLO describes an approach to identity that involves race, class, and gender. DEISJ courses must explicitly address how institutional and societal structures lead to inequities across these three core identities and provide opportunities for students to apply a social justice framework to their analysis.

SUNY’s guidance further states that “campuses may expand on the definition of individual and group identity to include additional aspects of diversity.” However, courses that explore or prioritize other aspects of diversity must also incorporate race, class, and gender in their treatment of diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice.

We hope that this clarifies what is expected of courses in DEISJ. If you are preparing to propose a course for DEISJ, whether as a GE 5 major course revision or a new course proposal, please look at the examples of successful GE 5 major course revisions for DEISJ posted on the GE Board’s website.

For more information about SUNY’s guidance about DEISJ, please see:

Guidance from University Faculty Senate and Faculty Council of Community Colleges to Campuses on Approving Courses for the DEISJ Requirement
SUNY GE Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice (DEISJ) Rubric (This is intended as guidance only.)

Thank you again for all your hard work on this project. Don’t forget that all previous Task Force messages, the GE 5 major course revision form along with successful examples of courses revised for GE 5, and an FAQ can all be found on the GE Board’s website, here: www.newpaltz.edu/ge.

Sincerely,

Laurel Garrick Duhaney, Co-chair, GE Implementation Task Force

Bruce Milem, Co-chair, GE Implementation Task Force