Dear Members of the University Community,

I write with an update on an important issue affecting our faculty community: the right of SCU adjunct faculty and lecturers to vote on whether to unionize.

When asked last fall about my position on unionization, I affirmed as a bedrock principle of Catholic social teaching that workers have the right to associate, and that in our context, the best form of association is our collaborative governance process. 

At the same time, I recognized the right of our adjunct faculty and lecturers to secure a vote to unionize through the National Labor Relations Board process (NLRB) because of its many decades of experience and the clarity, fair process, efficiency, and finality it affords. On July 10, the NLRB issued the Bethany College decision, ruling that the NLRB will not exercise jurisdiction over faculty members at religious institutions of higher education (the NLRB’s statement about this decision is found here). While I still prefer the NLRB process, it is foreclosed for faculty members at this time.

On July 20, Provost Lisa Kloppenberg and I received a letter signed by tenure-stream and non-tenure stream SCU faculty members, requesting that, given the Bethany College decision, we work with adjunct faculty and lecturers to pursue an “in-house” vote on unionization, as others have previously advocated. Although further legal action is available in Bethany and related cases, we have chosen not to wait for their resolution, which could take many months.

I agree with the signatories of the letter: because the NLRB process is presently foreclosed to faculty unionization, then under the principles we share in common, we need another way if adjunct faculty seek to vote.

I have asked Provost Lisa Kloppenberg, as our chief academic officer, to begin exploring an “in-house” option for all of our adjunct faculty and lecturers. Along the way, she will also engage existing faculty governance bodies to anticipate and address together whatever changes to our governance system and its bodies might be entailed with unionization.

In the past few months especially, so much has happened in our campus community and in our country to challenge us all very deeply. We promise to continue listening to the concerns of adjunct faculty and lecturers, informally and formally (for example, through the new Provost’s Adjunct Faculty and Lecturers Council). We remain committed to working collaboratively with our adjunct faculty and lecturers, whether they ultimately vote for a union or continue to work through our shared governance system.

Thank you all for the important work that you undertake for our community.

Sincerely,

Kevin F. O'Brien, S.J.
President