Georgia Southern University faculty members held their final senate meeting of the 2018-19 academic year last Tuesday, which led to a major discussion about the workload policy.

The faculty workload policy distributes workload responsibilities among faculty in a way that most equitably and efficiently advances the university mission.

According to the faculty senate agenda, the policy will position faculty to secure and maintain workloads that are ideal for their success and productivity.

A new policy was proposed in hopes to revise problems with the current policy which may lead to increased workloads for faculty without clear recourse.

After a faculty member raised question about the policy, members on both the Statesboro and Armstrong campuses began to weigh in and voice their opinions and concerns.

“Since we’ve been discussing this for the past, I don’t know how many meetings, it’s become pretty clear to me that there is not a one size fits all for workload,” College of Engineering and Computing professor Jim Harris said. “So I’m wondering why are we changing the current policy?”

The new policy contains important protections for tenure track and non-tenure track faculty that will allow them to pursue their career objectives in differentiated ways.

“It’s something that the people clearly care about because it has an immediate impact on them, and has an immediate impact on the largest number of people,” Senate President Dustin Anderson said.

The Tuesday meeting concluded the faculty senate meetings for the school year. The meetings will resume monthly beginning on September 17.

Anthony Belinfante, The George-Anne News Reporter, ganewsed@georgiasouthern.edu