June 2022

Our June 2022 newsletter includes the Call for Proposals for the National Center's 2023 conference. Proposals are due no later than September 9. 

This month's newsletter reports on the recent AAUP-AFT affiliation, a new research article by the National Center on the unionization of legislative employees, along with new filings and election results in higher education.

The newsletter also includes links to video recordings and materials from our 49th annual conference on April 11-13, 2022, links to articles from the latest volume of the Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy, and another reminder about the National Center's nationwide census survey of collective bargaining relationships.

Lastly, the newsletter provides a link to a recording of our March 2, 2022 webinar titled Race, History, and Academic Freedom, A Teach-In as well as information about two recent books about higher education: Collective Bargaining in Higher Education: Best Practices for Promoting Collaboration, Equity, and Measurable Outcomes, edited by Daniel J. Julius; and Power Despite Precarity: Strategies for the Contingent Faculty Movement in Higher Education by Joe Berry and Helena Worthen.

Call for Proposals

50th National Center Annual Conference

April 2023

The National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, Hunter College, City University of New York invites practitioners and scholars to submit abstracts of proposed panels for our 50th annual conference that will be taking place in April 2023 in New York City.

The theme of the 50th anniversary conference will be Collective Bargaining in Higher Education: Looking Back, Looking Forward, 1973-2023.

We welcome proposals for panels that will examine current topics in collective bargaining and unionization on campus in historical context. Toward that goal and consistent with the conference theme we will be encouraging panels to utilize materials from prior conference proceedings and earlier National Center newsletters to frame their presentations. A list of suggested panel topics are listed below.

We also encourage conference proposals from authors of recently published books relevant to higher education collective bargaining and unionization.

Those interested in proposing a panel should upload an abstract by September 9, 2022 to 2023 Abstract Dropbox that includes a title and description along with a list of invited participants including their title, affiliation, and contact information. We anticipate that the conference will be hybrid and request you state whether the panelists would want to participate in-person or virtually.

Questions concerning the call for proposals should be emailed to 2023 National Center Annual Conference.

Suggested Conference Panel Topics

  We seek proposals on a range of topics including but not limited to the following:

  Administrator Perspectives on Negotiations in Retrospect and Prospect

  Union Perspectives on Organizing and Bargaining: Yesterday and Today

  Bargaining Table Conduct and Tactics: Collegiality or Adversity Over Time

  Revisiting Grievance-Arbitration Procedures for More Expedited Outcomes

  The Substance and Procedures of Contract Non-Discrimination Clauses

  Yeshiva University: It's Long-Term Impact on Collective Negotiations

  Bargaining Unit Composition: Separate, Combined, or Wall-to-Wall?

  Collective Bargaining and Governance: In Harmony or In Conflict?

  Tenure, Due Process, and Other Labor Rights as Subjects of Negotiations

  Bargaining, Arbitrating, and Litigating over Academic Freedom

  Community Colleges: Unique Challenges for Administrators and Unions

  Historical Trends in Public Financing and Enrollment in Higher Education

  The Effect of Negotiations on Faculty Compensation

  The History of Union Representation of Contingent Faculty

  Lessons Learned from Clerical Staff Unionization at Harvard, Yale, and Columbia

  The Role of Students in Negotiations, Faculty Evaluations, and Governance

  It Started in Madison: Graduate Assistant Collective Bargaining Since 1969

  DIY Union at Grinnell: A New Approach to Undergraduate Labor Activism

  Student Scholarship Athletes: Unionization and Collective Bargaining

  Experiences in Internal Labor Organizing and Empowerment on Campus

  Title IX: Its Effect on Gender Disparities and Sexual Harassment On Campus in

  Historical Perspective    

  Race and Gender Differences in Support of Collective Bargaining

  Cultural Taxation and Other Adverse Impacts on Faculty of Color

  The History of LGBTQ Activism on Campus and Within Unions

  The Anatomies, Causes, and Results of Campus Strikes

  Reevaluating Historic Arguments and Debates Over Remote Education

  Negotiating Over Accommodations for Disabled Faculty, Staff, and Students

  Management Rights Issues in Higher Education Collective Bargaining

  An Analysis of Higher Education Pandemic-Related Negotiated Agreements

AAUP Affiliates with the American Federation of Teachers

At AAUP's biennial meeting earlier this month, the delegates voted in favor of AAUP affiliating with the American Federation of Teachers. Both AAUP and AFT have long histories of organizing and advocating on behalf of faculty and higher education, dating back to their respective foundlings in the early 20th century.  

While once rivals in faculty representation disputes in the late 1960s and 1970s, the organizations joined forces more recently in successful joint organizing campaigns at Rutgers University, the University of Illinois, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University of Oregon, Oregon State University, the University of New Mexico, Northern Illinois University, and Portland State University. The new formal AAUP-AFT affiliation will result in an expansion of that collaboration by combining and coordinating their advocacy and organizing in higher education.

Recent Research on Unionization of Legislative Employees

National Center Executive Director Bill Herbert and St. Johns Law School student Nick Wogan published an article in the recent issue of the American Bar Association's Labor and Employment Section Newsletter discussing the growth in unionization and collective bargaining among federal, state and local legislative employees. Nick was a resarch intern with the National Center during the Spring 2022 semester.

Santa Clara University: Contingent Faculty Vote for SEIU Representation

Santa Clara University, NLRB Case No. 32-RC-294533

On June 21, 2022, the National Labor Relations Board tallied the ballots in a representation election among contingent faculty at Santa Clara University. In a bargaining unit of 544, 245 faculty voted for SEIU Local 2021 representation and 93 voted against. 

The following is the composition of the new contingent faculty bargaining unit at Santa Clara University:

Included: All full-time and regular part-time Lecturers, Senior Lecturers, Quarterly Adjunct Lecturers, Dean's Executive Professors, Professors of Practice, Adjunct Professors, and Academic Year Adjunct Lecturers employed by the Employer at 500 El Camino Real Santa Clara, CA 95050-4345.

Excluded: All tenured faculty, members of a religious community and ordained clergy, Program Directors, Department Chairs, Promotion to Senior Lecturer Committees, tenure track faculty, non-tenure track faculty in the School of Law, non-tenure-track faculty in the Jesuit School of Theology, faculty in Appointments-in Residence appointed under section 3.1.2.2.3, Visiting Faculty appointed under section 3.1.2.3.1, Postdoctoral Fellows appointed under section 3.1.2.3.2, trustees, officers, administrators, managers, confidential employees, office clerical employees, security guards, and supervisors as defined by the National Labor Relations Act.

Ohio State University, Marion Campus: AFSCME Seeks TT Faculty Unit

Ohio State University, Marion Campus, OSERB Case No. 2022-Rep-03-003

AFSCME Ohio Council 8 has a petition pending with the Ohio State Employment Relations Board (OSERB) seeking to represent a unit of 36 tenured and tenure track faculty at Ohio State University's Marion Campus. The following is the proposed campus-based unit:

Included: All tenure and tenure track faculty at the Marion Campus of the Ohio State University, including Professor, Associate Professor, and Assistant Professor.

Excluded: All non-tenure track faculty, all clinical faculty, all supervisors, confidential, and management level employees as defined by the Act, including the Dean/Director and the Associate Dean of the Marion Campus of the Ohio State University, and all other employees.

Ohio State University has requested that OSERB dismiss the petition arguing that the proposed regional campus-based unit is inappropriate because it is inconsistent with the university's structure, mission, and governance. I n addition, it argues that the faculty working on the Marion Campus have a community of interest with faculty working on other university campuses. 

As an alternative, the university has proposed the following system-wide bargaining unit:

Included: All tenure track faculty at all campuses of The Ohio State University, including Professor, Associate Professor, and Assistant Professor.

Excluded: All non-tenure track faculty, including all clinical faculty, research faculty, associated faculty (including clinical practice faculty, visiting faculty, adjunct faculty, and lecturers), and all supervisors, confidential, and management level employees as defined by the Act, including all chairs of departments, heads of schools, directors of divisions, all ranks of dean (unless the dean is primarily a faculty member), all ranks of provosts, all ranks of vice-presidents, and the President.

Miami University: AAUP Files Petition to Represent TT Bargaining Unit 

Miami University, OSERB Case No. 2022-Rep-06-0069

Faculty Alliance of Miami, AAUP (FAM-AAUP) filed a petition on June 3, 2022 with the Ohio State Employment Relations Board (OSERB) seeking to represent a unit of 1,000 tenured and tenure track faculty at Miami University. 

The following is the faculty unit proposed by FAM-AAUP:

Included: All full-time faculty at all campuses of Miami University, including tenured and tenure-track faculty; teaching, clinical professors and lecturers (TCPL faculty); visiting faculty; instructors; librarians; museum and collections directors and curators; and program, center, or institute directors and assistant directors.

Excluded: All managerial employees including the president, vice presidents, provost, associate and assistant provosts, deans, associate and assistant deans, and department chairs.

Rider University Files to Remove Head Coaches from AAUP Unit

Rider University, NLRB Case No. 22-UC-297883

On June 17, 2022, Rider University filed a unit clarification petition with the National Labor Relations Board seeking to have 11 head coaches and one head trainer removed from the long-existing faculty bargaining unit represented by AAUP.  The university claims that the head coaches and trainer are supervisors as defined by the National Labor Relations Act. Although the current bargaining unit has existed for close to half a century, the university  does not allege any changes to the job duties of the at-issue head coaches and the trainer to support the petition.

Univ. of Washington Med. Center: SEIU Files to Represent Social Workers

University of Washington, WPERC Case No. 135139-E-22

On June 3, 2022, SEIU Local 925 filed a petition to represent a unit of 92 full-time and regular part-time social workers working for the University of Washington Medical Center and its clinics

The National Center's 2022 annual conference on April 11-13, 2022 was a major success. We thank all the panelists, moderators, and attendees for their participation.

We are grateful to TIAA, SEIU, AAUP, AFT, NEA and NCHE for sponsoring the conference, to the organizations, law firms, and businesses that purchased conference program advertisements, and to the individuals who made donations.

Below are links to video recordings of conference presentations along with links to panel descriptions, panelists bios, and reading material. Click here for the full conference program.

Welcoming Remarks from Jennifer J. Raab, President, Hunter College, CUNY, Theodore H. Curry, Professor of Human Resources and Labor Relations, Michigan State University, Christopher Simeone, Director, Department of Organizing and Services, AAUP, and William A. Herbert, Executive Director, National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, Hunter College, CUNY.

Keynote Presentation by Montserrat Garibay, Senior Advisor for Labor Relations, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Education in conversation with Kathleen Mulligan, Director of the National Labor Leadership Initiative, Cornell University, ILR School. Panelists Bios

Panel: The Future of Higher Education with Arthur Levine, The Great Upheaval: Higher Education's Past, Present, and Uncertain Future, Ann Kirschner, University Professor, City University of New York, Discussant, Adrianna Kezar, Endowed Professor and Dean's Professor of Leadership, USC, Director, Pullias Center, and Director, Delphi Project, Discussant, and Daniel Greenstein, Chancellor, Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, Moderator.

Panel Description and Panelists Bios

Panel: Reassessing and Reexamining the History of Higher Education with Elizabeth Tandy Shermer, Indentured Students: How Government-Guaranteed Loans Left Generations Drowning in College Debt, Cristina Viviana Groeger, The Education Trap: Schools and the Remaking of Inequality in Boston, Davarian Baldwin, In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities, and Ellen Schrecker, The Lost Promise: American Universities in the 1960s, and Suzanne Kahn, Managing Director of Research and Policy, Roosevelt Institute, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios. At our request, the panelists prepared the following bibliography for further study of the issues.

Panel: Contract Negotiations under COVID and Beyond with Margaret E. Winters, former Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Wayne State University, Ricardo Villarosa, Wayne State University AAUP-AFT, Dominick Fanelli, Associate Director Labor Relations, University of Michigan, Kirsten Herold, President, Lecturers' Employee Organization, AFT Local 6244, and Homer C. La Rue, Labor Arbitrator, Mediator, and Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law, Moderator.

Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material

Panel: COVID and Higher Education: The Role of Unions and Arbitration Regarding Vaccine Mandates with Richard Bales, Professor of Law, Pettit College of Law, Ohio Northern University, Eve Weinbaum, Co-President, Massachusetts Society of Professors, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Michael Eagen, Associate Provost for Academic Personnel, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Charles Toombs, President, California Faculty Association, Moderator.

Panel Description and Panelists Bios

Panel: Pandemic Organizing and Bargaining Lessons in Higher Education with Larry Savage, Chair, Department of Labour Studies, Brock University and Lauren Byers, United Faculty of Florida, Unit Service Director, Organizing Specialist, Barry Miller, Senior Policy Advisor on Labour Relations, York University, Discussant and Moderator.

Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material

Panel: Lessons Learned: Organizing and Collective Bargaining by Graduate Assistants During the Pandemic with Jacob A. Bennett, MFA, PhD, University of New Hampshire, Ben Serber, Higher Ed Organizer, North Dakota United and Past President, FSU Graduate Assistants United, Amy L. Levant, Assistant Director of Labor and Employee Relations, University of Illinois, Chicago, and Joseph van der Naald, Graduate Student Researcher, Program in Sociology, Graduate Center, CUNY, Moderator.

Panel Description and Panelists Bios

Panel: Limiting the Use of Student Evaluations in Contracts: Challenges in Vision and Enforcement with Steven Newman, former President, Temple Association of University Professionals, Temple University, Ian Sakinofsky, Professor of HR Management, Ryerson University, Laura Murphy, Dutchess United Educators, Alexandra Matish, Associate Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs, University of Michigan, and Timothy S. Taylor, Arbitrator, Scheinman Arbitration and Mediation Services, Moderator.

Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material

Panel: Federal Funding, Inequality, and Higher Education: Politics and Policy-Making with Adam Harris, staff writer at the Atlantic, National Fellow at New America, and author, The State Must Provide: Why America’s Colleges Have Always Been Unequal — and How to Set Them Right, Rebecca S. Natow, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership & Policy, Hofstra University and author, Reexamining the Federal Role in Higher Education: Politics and Policymaking in the Postsecondary Sector, and Sosanya Jones, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Howard University, Moderator.

Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material

Panel: Becoming JEDI: Labor-Management Strategy to Challenge Racism on Campus and Stem Community College Enrollment Decline with Courtney Brewer, Professor of Psychology, Executive Vice President, Faculty Association Suffolk Community College, Christina Vargas, Chief Diversity Officer and Title IX Coordinator, Suffolk County Community College, board member, ERASE Racism NY, Patty Munsch, Interim Vice President for Student Affairs, Suffolk County Community College, Jennifer Browne, Associate Dean for Curriculum Development, Suffolk County Community College, Lauren Liburd, Specialist, SCCC Foundation, Co-Chair Achieving the Dream Committee, and Cynthia Eaton, Professor of English, Secretary, Faculty Association Suffolk Community College, Moderator.

Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material

Panel: Collective Bargaining and Shared Governance: Findings from the 2021 AAUP Shared Governance Survey with Lynn Pasquerella, President, Association of American Colleges and Universities, Timothy Reese Cain, Associate Professor of Higher Education, University of Georgia, Hans-Joerg Tiede, Director of Research, American Association of University Professors, and Michael Loconto, Arbitrator and Mediator, Loconto ADR, Boston, MA, Moderator.

Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material

Panel: Achieving Pay Parity for Part-Time Faculty in Community Colleges with

Sandra Weese, Organizing Director, California Federation of Teachers, Ron McKinley, Vice Chancellor of Human Resources and Employee Relations, Peralta Community College District, Dyana Delfin-Polk, Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees, and Jennifer Shanoski, President, Peralta Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 1603, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material

Panel: An Update from NLRB and Public Sector Labor Relations Agencies on Higher Education Issues with Mark Gaston Pearce, Executive Director, Workers’ Rights Institute, Georgetown University Law School, and former National Labor Relations Board Chairman, J. Felix De La Torre, General Counsel, California Public Employment Relations Board, Ellen Maureen Strizak, General Counsel, Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, and Jennifer Abruzzo, General Counsel, National Labor Relations Board.

Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material

Panel: Faculty Unionization and Collective Bargaining in the Philippines: Similarities and Differences with Benjamin Velasco, Assistant Professor, University of the Philippines, School of Labor and Industrial Relations, Rene Luis Tadle, Associate Professor, Philosophy, University of Santo Tomas and Lead Convenor, Council of Teachers and Staff of Colleges and Universities of the Philippines, Gerardo L. Blanco Associate Professor, Higher Education, Academic Director, Center for International Higher Education, Boston College, Shannon Lederer, Director of Immigration Policy, AFL-CIO, and Ashwini Sukthankar, Secretary/Treasurer, International Commission for Labor Rights. Panel Description and Panelists Bios

Panel: Higher Education Legal Update with Henry Morris, Jr., Partner, Arent Fox LLP, Monica Barrett, Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC, Angela Thompson, CWA Special Counsel for Strategic Initiatives, and Aaron Nisenson, Senior Legal Counsel, AAUP, Panelist and Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material

For the past year, the National Center's research team has conducted  a national electronic census survey to collect current data about all collective bargaining units and contracts in higher education in higher education.

Thanks to the hundreds of unions and institutions that have submitted survey responses, we are close to our data collection goal. We encourage the few remaining institutions and unions to follow their colleagues and submit a response to the electronic survey today.

A word version of the survey is also available. You can request one, or submit questions to our research team members, via email: ncscbint1@hunter.cuny.edu.

Joe Berry and Helena Worthen have published a new book with Pluto Press titled Power Despite Precarity: Strategies for the Contingent Faculty Movement in Higher Education.

The book describes the historical periods leading to major transitions in higher education faculty. It then examines the three-decade effort by contingent faculty at California State University to improve their working conditions through collective bargaining. Berry and Worthen are well-known contingent faculty activists with extensive experience in organizing contingent faculty nationwide. Their new book draws upon their vast practical experiences and observations to analyze the strategies and challenges of seeking to improve contingent faculty terms and conditions of employment.