Up to 31 Georgia Southern University limited-term faculty will be made into regular faculty and 12 may remain limited-term in fall 2019, Provost Carl Reiber said.

According to documents by GS, as of spring 2019 GS has 121 limited-term faculty employed across all three of its campuses. In an article by Savannah Morning News in April, current limited-term faculty members expressed their concerns with how GS’ budget cut, caused by reduced enrollment, could jeopardize their jobs with the university.

Reiber said the university will approach limited-term faculty in the following ways:

• 31 faculty with four or more years as limited-term will be converted to regular faculty
• 12 will be asked to return as limited-term faculty for one year pending a recommendation by their department chair
• Remaining limited-term faculty will leave as their one year contacts expire

Reiber expects the university to have between 90 and 100 limited-term faculty members in the coming year, including the 31 being converted to regular faculty.

Reiber said the university is working to place the 31 limited-term faculty into regular faculty member positions that correspond with the current title they hold.

The 12 limited-term faculty members will be assessed over next semester and, depending on the university’s needs and budget, may be converted to regular faculty.

Out of compliance with USG

While GS’ limited-term faculty size for next semester was impacted by budget cuts, Reiber said the approach the university is taking is to get back in compliance with University System of Georgia policy.

According to USG policy, limited-term faculty are hired on an one year contact to fill an empty faculty position while a search is in progress.

GS President Kyle Marrero said the university has some limited-term faculty who have been limited-term 14 to 15 years.

“The number of limited term faculty for the size of the institution as a benchmark, we’re way out of whack on that,” Marrero said.

After speaking with provosts and presidents from other institutions about the size of GS, Provost Carl Reiber said the average number of limited-term faculty GS should have is 40 to 50.

Class sizes

As GS’ budget has unfolded, Reiber said the university has been able to meet the student demands, in terms of sections and class sizes, that has been requested by the departments and colleges.

“If our enrollment goes then what we will do is use the tuition revenue from those increasing numbers in students to hire either part time instructors or pay an overload to existing faculty to make sure we’ve got the right classes, the numbers of class and that they’re not huge. “

Matthew Enfinger, The George-Anne Editor-in-Chief, gaeditor@georgiasouthern.edu