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May 2023 Newsletter

This month's newsletter includes links to video recordings of nine sessions from our 50th anniversary conference including the keynote address by political philosopher Michael Sandel.

The newsletter also contains notices about our next regional event, a collective bargaining program in Chicago in September, and a new survey being conducted by the Pullias Center for Higher Education on academic careers and environments

We also report on four faculty representation cases from Ohio, Maryland, and Illinois seven representation cases involving graduate and undergraduate employees, an unfair labor practice complaint that could have major implications for college athletes and collegiate sports, and two new bargaining units of interns and residents.

Lastly, the newsletter includes links to articles in the current volume of the Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy and an announcement about an upcoming book on the history of contingent faculty.

The National Center's 50th Anniversary Conference

The National Center's 50th anniversary conference on March 26-28, 2023 was a major success. We thank all the panelists, moderators, and attendees for their participation.

We are grateful to NEA,TIAA, SEIU, Morgan, Brown & Joy, AFT, AAUP, PSC, NEA National Council of Higher Education, The Standard, and Cullen & Dykman for sponsoring the conference. We also thank the organizations, law firms, and businesses that purchased conference program advertisements.

Click here for the full conference program. And click here for the webpage dedicated to the 50th Anniversary conference, which was developed with the assistance of Iris Finkel, Hunter College Web and Digital Initiatives Librarian.

The success of this year's conference would not have been possible without the assistance of Hunter College and Roosevelt.House staff and students and the many conference volunteers.

Video Recordings from the 50th Anniversary Conference

Below are links to video recordings of certain presentations at the National Center's 50th Anniversary Conference.

We thank Roosevelt House Production Coordinator Daniel T. Culkin and Peter Jackson, Hunter College's Chief Digital Media CLT & Production Coordinator and the students of the Hunter College Film & Media Department for recording and producing the videos.

Welcoming Remarks by National Center Executive Director William A. Herbert, Anne Ollen, Managing Director, TIAA Institute, Gary Rhoades, University of Arizona and Co-Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy, and Karen Stubaus, Rutgers University, and Associate Editor, Journal of Collective Bargaining inthe Academy.

Keynote Keynote Presentation by Michael Sandel, Political Philosopher and Harvard University Professor with Introductory remarks by Hunter College President, Jennifer J. Raab.

Panel: Title IX: Its Past, Its Present, and Its Future with Frazier Benya, Senior Program Officer, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Lance Houston, Title IX Coordinator and Director of Equity and Compliance, Adelphi University, Risa Lieberwitz, Professor of Labor and Employment Law in the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations and General Counsel of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), Tamiko Strickman, Special Advisor to the President and Executive Director of the Office of Equity, Civil Rights, and Title IX, University of Michigan, and Moderators: Karen R. Stubaus, Ph.D., Vice President for Academic Affairs, Rutgers University and Alexandra Matish, J.D., Associate Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs and Senior Director, Academic Human Resources, University of Michigan. This panel was co-organized by the National Academies' Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education.

Panel: Treasuring the Past and the Spirit of Change: Perspectives from Experienced Arbitrators with Rosemary A. Townley, Arbitrator and Mediator, Howard C. Edelman, Arbitrator and Mediator, Jacquelin F. Drucker, Arbitrator and Mediator, and Homer LaRue, Arbitrator, Mediator, and Professor, Howard University Law School, Moderator. This panel was co-sponsored by the National Academy of Arbitrators.

Panel: Higher Education Unionization: Perspectives from Labor Relations Agencies with John Wirenius, Chairperson, New York State Public Employment Relations Board, Marjorie Wittner, Chairperson, Massachusetts Commonwealth Employment Relations Board, Mary Beth Hennessy-Shotter, Director of Conciliation and Arbitration, NJ Public Employment Relations Commission, and Michael P. Sellars, Executive Director, Washington State Public Employment Relations Commission, Moderator. This panel was co-sponsored by the the Association of Labor Relations Agencies.

Panel: Annual Legal Update with Amy L. Rosenberger, Willig, Williams & Davidson, Monica C. Barrett, Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC, Henry Morris, Jr., Partner, ArentFox Schiff LLP, Aaron Nisenson, Senior Legal Counsel, AAUP, and Brian Selchick

Cullen and Dykman LLP, Moderator.

Panel: Yesterday and Today: Experienced Faculty Leaders in Higher Education with Jamie Dangler, former Vice President for Academics, United University Professions, Art Hochner, Associate Professor Emeritus, Management, Temple University & former President, Temple Assn. of University Professionals, AFT 4531, Charles Toombs, President, California Faculty Association, Kenneth Mash, President, APSCUF, and Penny Lewis, Secretary, Professional Staff Congress/CUNY, AFT Local #2334, Moderator.

Panel: Exploring the Retirement Income Equity Gap with Brent Davis, Economist, TIAA Institute, John Dorsa, Chief Pension Officer, Office of the New York City Comptroller, Valerie Martin Conley, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Idaho State University, and Anne Ollen, Managing Director, TIAA Institute, Panelist and Moderator.

Panel: College Athletes, NCAA and the NLRA: An Update with Gabriel Feldman, Sher Garner Professor of Sports Law, Tulane Law School, Joshua Nadreau, Fisher Phillips LLP, Mark Gaston Pearce, Executive Director, Workers’ Rights Institute, Georgetown University Law School, and former National Labor Relations Board Chairman, and Jeffrey Hirsch, Geneva Yeargan Rand Distinguished Professor of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law, Panelist and Moderator.

Panel: Labor Issues Facing Independent Musicians with Marc Ribot, Guitarist and Composer, Phillip Golub, Pianist and Composer, Amir Elsaffar, Trumpeter and Composer, Sulynn Hago, Guitarist and Composer, and Larry Blumenfeld, Moderator. This panel was co-sponsored by the Music Workers Alliance.

Save the Date

Higher Education Collective Bargaining Workshop Training

University of Illinois-Chicago, September 14-15, 2023

The National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions at Hunter College, the University of Illinois System, and the University of Illinois School of Labor & Employment Relations’ Labor Education Program are joining forces to bring you a two-day collective bargaining workshop training in Chicago.

The workshop training is being planned for September 14 and 15 at the University of Illinois-Chicago Student Center East, located on Halsted Street just south of the Jane Addams Interchange.

Registration information, additional details, and updates about the workshop will be distributed in the near future.

The following is a list of currently confirmed speakers, presenters, and facilitators for the workshop training in September:

• Angie Cowan Hamada, NLRB Region 13 Director
• Ellen Strizak, General Counsel, Illinois Educational Labor Relations Bd.
• Thomas H. Riley, Jr. Executive Director of Labor and Special Counsel, University of Illinois System
• Robert Bruno, University of Illinois Labor Education Program Director
• William A. Herbert, National Center Executive Director, Hunter College
• Keino Robinson, Director of Labor and Employee Relations, University of Illinois at Chicago
• Nicholas Christen, Director of Field and Organizing, Illinois Federation of Teacher
• Robb Craddock, Executive Director of Labor and Employee Relations, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
• Rachel Tollett, UniServ Director, Service Area HE, Illinois Education Association-NEA
• Diana Vallera, President CFAC/IFT, Columbia College
• Mike Newman, Deputy Director, AFSCME Council 31
• Alexandria Matish, Associate Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, University of Michigan.
• Melissa Sortman, Director, Office of Faculty and Academic Affairs, Michigan State University
• Theodore Curry, Professor of Human Resources and Labor Relations, Michigan State University (emeritus)
• Marcia J. Mackey, Michigan Education Association Board of Directors, and NCHE Secretary
• Brandy Vanderhovel, UniServ Director Michigan Education Association

Faculty Academic Careers, and Environments (FACE) Survey

Adrianna J. Kezar and her colleagues at the Pullias Center for Higher Education have announced the Faculty, Academic Careers, and Environments (FACE) project, and is requesting your participation.

The FACE survey is a collaboration between researchers at the University of Southern California, University of Alabama, and RTI International, with funding from a National Science Foundation grant. The survey is designed to learn about the careers and working environments of faculty academic/instructional staff, researchers, and public service staff including full-time, part-time, and contingent faculty/staff. This survey includes all public and private-non-profit post-secondary institutions in the United States, except for medical, dental, and nursing schools.

To participate, you can register at edsurveys.rti.org/faces. The survey takes approximately 30 minutes to complete. If you have questions about the FACE Project, you can contact the FACE Help Desk at face_survey@rti.org or 866-253-0474. Additional information is also available at Putting a FACE on Faculty - Pullias Center (usc.edu)

Miami University: Faculty Vote for AAUP-AFT Represntation

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

On May 17, 2023, the Ohio State Employment Relations Board (OSERB) tallied the ballots in an election concerning a petition filed by Faculty Alliance of Miami, AAUP-AFT to represent approximately 804 faculty at the Miami University. The ballot tally established the faculty voted 450-241 in favor of AAUP-AFT representation.

The following is the new faculty bargaining unit at Miami University:

Included: All full-time faculty at all campuses of Miami University, including tenure and tenure-track faculty; teaching, clinical professors and lecturers (TCPL faculty),

Excluded: Visiting faculty; instructors; librarians; musician and collections directors and curators; and program, center, or institute directors and assistant directors. All managerial employees including the president, vice president, provost, associate and assistant provosts, deans, associate and assistant deans, and department chairs.

Washington College: AAUP Files to Represent a TTT Faculty Unit

Washington College, NLRB Case No. 05-RC-318094

On May 15, 2023, the Washington College Chapter of the American Association of University Professors filed a petition with the NLRB seeking to represent a unit of 80 tenure track and tenured professors at Washington College, a private institution.

The following is the description of the petitioned-for bargaining unit:

Included: All tenure track and tenured professors at the rank of Professor, Associate Professor, and Assistant Professor, and Librarians employed by Washington College.

Excluded: All other employees, office clerical employees, managerial employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act.

Anne Arundel Community College: SEIU Files to Represent PT Faculty

Anne Arundel Community College, SHELRB Case No. EL 2023-01

On May 5, 2023, SEIU Local 500 filed a petition with the Maryland State Higher Education Labor Relations Board seeking to represent a unit of 221 part-time faculty at Anne Arundel Community College.

University of Chicago: SEIU Files to Represent a New NTT Faculty Unit

University of Chicago, NLRB Case No. 13-RC-317470

On May 5, 2023, SEIU Local 73 filed a petition with the NLRB to represent a new bargaining unit of 45 full-time and part-time non-tenure track lecturers at the University of Chicago. Since 2015, SEIU Local 73 currently represents two other non-tenure track faculty bargaining units at the University of Chicago.

The following a description of the new petitioned-for bargaining unit:

Included: All full-time and part-time graduate and undergraduate non-tenure-track academic appointees, including the non-supervisory Senior Lecturer responsible for the Marathi Language Program, the non-supervisory Senior Lecturer with the lead role in the Practicum in the undergraduate Public Policy Program, the non-supervisory Senior Lecturer responsible for the Persian Language Program, the non-supervisory Senior Lecturer responsible for career advising and the coordination of internships in the MAPSS Program, the non-supervisory Senior Lecturer responsible for the applied mathematics component of the undergraduate Biology Program, the non-supervisory Senior Lecturer responsible for Ecology and Evolution Programs for undergraduates not majoring in biology, the non-supervisory Senior Lecturer in the Yiddish Language Program, and the non-supervisory Senior Lecturer responsible for the introductory and intermediate part of the SALC Hindi Language Program, who are employed and compensated directly by the University of Chicago at it Main campus at 5801 South Ellis Avenue, the School of Social Service Administration at 969 East 60th Street, the Divinity School at Swift Hall, 1025 East 58th Street, the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at 1155 East 60th Street and who are currently teaching at least one credit-bearing course (excluding hybrid and blended courses) in a degree-granting program; Writing Specialists; Lectors; Writing Advisors; Writing and Research Advisors.

Excluded: All tenured faculty, tenure-track faculty, distinguished service faculty, research associates with or without parenthetical rank who are not teaching credit bearing courses, and emeritus faculty, all faculty in non-degree granting programs; all faculty teaching at locations other than the facilities or addresses described above; all faculty teaching online courses only; employees who do not teach undergraduate or graduate level credit-earning courses or labs; L.E. Dickson Instructors in the Department of Mathematics; Members of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts holding the academic rank of Collegiate Assistant Professor; Senior Lecturers other than those expressly included above; instructors in the Financial Math and Computer Science masters programs; the Pritzker School of Medicine faculty not tenured or on the tenure track; the Graham School of Continuing Liberal Arts and Professional Studies appointees; the Booth School of Business appointees; the Law School appointees; the Urban Teacher Institute and Urban Teacher Education Program appointees; appointees paid by entities other than the University of Chicago (including governments and organizations), instructors who are employed by national laboratories managed by the University of Chicago, including Argonne Laboratory, Fermi Laboratory and instructors who are employed by the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA (an affiliate of the University of Chicago); all administrators (including deans, directors, provosts, and chairs who may have teaching assignments); graduate students including those teaching courses in addition to a stipend; athletic coaches; all other employees employed by the University, including those who teach a class or course and are separately compensated for such teaching; curators; and managers, confidential employees, office clerical employees, professional employees, guards and supervisors as defined in the Act.

SUNY Research Foundation: CWA Certified to Represent RA Unit

Research Foundation for the State University of New York,

NLRB Case No. 03-RC-315255

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) has been certified by the NLRB to represent a new bargaining unit of 82 Research Project Assistants employed by the SUNY Research Foundation at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse New York. The certification was issued following a representation election in which the Research Project Assistants voted 52-1 in favor of CWA representation.

The following is the description of the new bargaining unit at the SUNY Research Foundation:

Included: All full-time and regular part-time Research Project Assistants ("RPAs") employed by the Employer at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Excluded: All other employees, guards, clerical employees, confidential employees and supervisors as defined by the Act.

University of Minnesota: UE Certified to Represent GSE Bargaining Unit

University of Minnesota, BMS Case No. 23PCE1825

On April 23, 2023, the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services certified United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) to represent a bargaining unit of 4,169 graduate assistants at the University of Minnesota. The certification followed an election in which the graduate assistants voted 2,487-70 in favor of UE representation.

The recent election outcome was significantly different from the result in 2012 when University of Minnesota graduate assistants voted 1142–1857 against representation

The following is the description of the new graduate assistant bargaining unit at the University of Minnesota:

All graduate assistants who are enrolled in the graduate school and who hold the rank of research assistant, teaching assistant, teaching associate I or II, project assistant, or administrative fellow I or II.

Stanford Univ.: Graduate Assistant Representation Election Scheduled

Stanford University, NLRB Case No. 32-RC-316964

On May 18, 2023, the NLRB issued a notice of election concerning the representation petition filed by United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE) seeking to represent a union of approximately 5,700 graduate assistants at Stanford University. The notice scheduled a mail ballot election with the tally taking place on July 6, 2023.

The following is the at-issue unit at Stanford University:

Included: All Ph.D., Masters (excluding MBA) and J.D. students (as well as students pursuing degree combinations that include Ph.D., Masters (excluding MBA), and J.D.) enrolled at Stanford University located at 450 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA 94305 who provide instructional and/or research services for the University in classifications including Teaching Assistant, Research Assistant, and Course Assistant,and students on fellowship who provide instructional services; who were employed by the Employer during

the payroll period ending May 15, 2023.

Excluded: All other exempt employees (including faculty or staff enrolled using

University tuition benefit); students who are not providing research or instructional services for any class listed in Stanford Explore Courses, including all other students on fellowship; all other students (including but not limited to the following students: MBA, DMA, JSD, MD, and undergraduate students (including undergraduates who are conterminously enrolled in graduate program), students not seeking Stanford degrees, and visiting students) office clericals; managers; guards and supervisors as defined in the Act.

University of Alaska: GSE Representation Petition Pending

University of Alaska, ALRA Case No. 23-1784-RC

On February 22, 2023, the Alaska Graduate Workers Association/UAW filed a

petition with the Alaska Labor Relations Agency (ALRA) seeking to represent a unit of 6,225 graduate assistants at the University of Alaska. The case remains pending with ALRA and the next step should be the scheduling of a representation election.

The following is the at-issue graduate assistant unit at the University of Alaska:

Included: All employees of the University of Alaska who are enrolled in graduate academic programs, including Fellows.

Not Included: Any individuals in the faculty bargaining unit (United Academics) or in the adjunct faculty bargaining unit (United Academic Adjuncts); all undergraduate student employees; supervisors; confidential employees; all other employees of the University.

Columbia University: Union Certified to Represent Resident Advisors

Trustees of Columbia University, NLRB Case No. 02-RC-312909

On May 17, 2023, the CURA Collective, an independent undergraduate student labor union, was certified by the NLRB to represent a unit of 153 undergraduate student resident advisors at Columbia University. The May 2, 2023 tally of ballots established that the resident advisors voted 75-4 in favor of representation.

The following is the new bargaining unit at Columbia University:

Included: All undergraduate student resident advisers (RAs) for students in Columbia College or the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Excluded: All other employees including non-undergraduate student workers, all

professional employees, RAs for colleges other than Columbia College or the School of

Engineering and Applied Science, Graduate Hall Directors, Resident Hall Directors, any other student workers enrolled as students at Columbia, all office clericals, confidential employees, managers, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act.

USC Collegiate Athletes: ULP Complaint Issued Against Joint Employers

University of Southern California, Pac-12 Conference & The National Collegiate Athletics Association, NLRB Case No. 31-CA-290326

On May 18, 2023, NLRB Region 31 issued a complaint stemming from an unfair labor practice charge filed by the National College Players Association against the University of Southern California (USC), National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Pac-12 Athletic Conference (Pac-12). The complaint alleges that USC, NCAA, and Pac-12 are joint employers of scholarship and non-scholarship/walk-on players on the football and the women’s and men’s basketball teams at USC, and the joint employers have violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by misclassifying the student athletes as not employees and denying them rights guaranteed under the NLRA.

The complaint is consistent with the September 21, 2021 memorandum issued by NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo on the employee status of college athletes under the NLRA.

Harvard University: UAW Files to Represent Undergraduate Unit

President and Fellows of Harvard College, NLRB Case No. 01-RC-317281

On May 3, 2023, the Harvard Undergraduate Workers Union- UAW Local 5118 filed a petition to represent a unit of 500 undergraduate employees at Harvard University.

The following is the proposed bargaining unit set forth in the petition:

Included: All full-time and regular part-time undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in degree programs at Harvard University and who are employed by Harvard University as non-academic service employees in (1) the Harvard Library System;1 (2) Dining Services cafes;2 (3) Cambridge Queen’s Head Pub; and (4) in the Office of BGLTQ+ Life; the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations; and the Harvard College Women's Center.

Excluded: Managerial employees, guards, and professional employees as defined by the Act, and all other employees; and excluding any student employees working at the Arnold Arbo etum Horticultural Library, Biblioteca Berenson, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library. 1 The known worksite locations are: 625 Massachusetts Avenue, Baker Library and Special Collections, Botany Libraries, Cabot Science Library, Countway Library, Ernst Mayr Library, Fine Arts Library, Frances Loeb Library, Fung Library, Gutman Library, Harvard Divinity School Library, Harvard Film Archive, Harvard Law School Library, Harvard Map Collection, Harvard University Archives, Harvard-Yenching Library, HKS Library and Research Services, Houghton Library, Lamont Library, Loeb Music Library, Robbins Library of Philosophy, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Science and Engineering Complex Library, Tozzer Library, Widener Library, Wolbach Library and Woodberry Poetry Room. 2 The known worksite locations are: Barker, Cafe Gato Rojo, GSAS Commons, HDS Commons, HKS, HLS Harkness Dining Room, Pub Grill, Harkbox & Catering, HLS Pub, LISE, Lamont, Northwest, and SEC.

Bennington College: Election Scheduled for Undergraduate Unit

Bennington College, NLRB Case No.: 03-RC-317292

On May 18, 2023, the NLRB issued a notice of election concerning a representation petition filed by the Bennington College House Chairs Union, an independent undergraduate student labor union, seeking to represent a unit of 40 undergraduate house chairs at Bennington College. The in-person election is scheduled to take place on May 31, 2023.

The following is the at-issue bargaining unit:

Included: All undergraduate House Chairs employed by the Employer at its Bennington, Vermont campus who were employed by the Employer during the payroll period ending April 29, 2023.

Excluded: All other student and non-student employees, office clerical employees, confidential employees, managers,guards and professional employees and supervisors as defined in the Act

University of Pennsylvania: Interns and Residents Unionize

University of Pennsylvania Health System, NLRB Case No. 04-RC-313858

On May 16 2023, the NLRB certified the Committee of Interns and Residents, SEIU to represent a union of over a 1,000 full-time and regular part-time interns and residents at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. The certification followed an election in which the interns and residents voted 892-110 in favor of unionizing.

The following was the voting unit in the representation election:

Included: All full-time and regular part-time interns, fellows and residents employed by the University of Pennsylvania Health System at The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania at or out of its facility located at 3400 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and at Pennsylvania Hospital at or out of its facility located at 800 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Excluded: All other employees, directors, managers, guards and supervisors as defined in the Act. Others permitted to vote: The parties have agreed that Chief Residents may vote in the election, but their ballots will be challenged since their eligibility has not been resolved. No decision has been made regarding whether the individuals in these classifications or groups are included in, or excluded from, the bargaining unit. The eligibility or inclusion of these individuals will be resolved, if necessary, following the election.

George Washington University: Residents and Fellows Unionize

George Washington University, NLRB Case No. 05-RC-314527

On May 5 2023, the NLRB certified the Committee of Interns and Residents, SEIU to represent a unit of 420 full-time and regular part-time residents, chief resident, and fellows at George Washington University. The certification followed an election in which the residents and fellows voted 253-16 in favor of unionizing.

The following is the newly certified unit at George Washington University:

Included: All full-time and regular part-time house staff employed by the Employer in the following classifications: resident, chief resident, and fellows.

Excluded: All other employees, directors, managerial employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act.

Last month, volume 14 of the Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy was published The volume title is "Learning from the Past to Enhance our Future."

The Journal's Editors-in-Chief are Jeffrey Cross, Eastern Illinois University (Emeritus) and Gary Rhoades, University of Arizona

Introduction:

Volume 14 of the Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy (JCBA) is partly a selection of new articles, practitioner perspectives, and op-eds, which we briefly preview below. It is also partly a special issue celebration of the 50^th anniversary of Hunter College’s National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions (National Center), featuring a selection of thirteen papers from the annual conference proceedings over the years. Our volume’s title, “Learning From the Past to Enhance Our Future,” echoes this year’s annual conference theme, “Looking Back, Looking Forward.”

In this issue, we happily welcome a new co-editor of JCBA, Dr. Karen Stubaus, Vice President for Academic Affairs at Rutgers University, to join Dr. Jeff Cross (now “retired,” but formerly Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at Eastern Illinois University and Ferris State University) and Dr. Gary Rhoades Professor of Higher Education, University of Arizona. The 50 years of the National Center’s existence corresponds roughly to the academic lives of the co-editors, as students and employees. Indeed, Karen and Gary have each spent almost their entire professional lives at their respective institutions, having started in 1986. Jeff began his service and work in higher education a decade earlier. Collectively, that affords us a unique vantage point from which to look back on and learn from the selected papers from 50 years of the annual conference’s proceedings.

Building on the closing paragraphs of National Center Director Bill Herbert’s article in this volume, we believe that collective bargaining is “a form of workplace democracy,” and that it is “an important means for advancing higher education and the working conditions at colleges and universities as well as other industries.” (National Center Mission Statement)

As Herbert notes, that marks quite a shift from the National Center’s original, neutral mission to “take no position for or against collective bargaining,” What is continuous, though, is a commitment to the National Center bringing to bear “information and understanding” regarding collective bargaining. Thus, we also believe, as the current National Center Mission Statement indicates, that,

"[T]he study of collective bargaining is essential for a knowledge-based dialogue concerning labor-management and educational issues, and is critically important for reasoned societal debate that will lead to social progress."

That is at the heart of our work with JCBA. And that is what we hope this special issue contributes to and provides.

Volume 14 includes two articles, two new interview articles, an op-ed, and a practitioner perspective. Together, they reflect and address longstanding issues in collective bargaining as well as provoke thought and discussion on the ongoing, pressing issues of today and the foreseeable future. Richard Boris provides an op-ed from his perspective as immediate-past Executive Director of the National Center. He repeats and expands upon several critical observations and suggestions as possible guides for the National Center’s future. From his perspective as Senior Labor Advisor, American Association of University Professors, Mike Mauer traces the AAUP’s history of advocacy and protection of academic freedom through collective bargaining. Bill Herbert has written a history of the National Center tracing events leading to its creation at the City University of New York (CUNY), and then summarizing the National Center’s evolving leadership, programming, research, and publications. Giovanna Follo’s practitioner perspective is an autoethnography describing personal dilemma that led her, a pro-union advocate, to cross the picket line.

We also introduce a new format with this issue—interviews with practitioners (and authors), which apropos of the volume’s theme, provide rich historical perspective to inform the future path of collective bargaining in the academy. The first, “Centering anti-racism and social justice, toward a more perfect union,” is a conversation with Cecil E. Canton (former Associate Vice President) and Charles Toombs (current President) of the California Faculty Association, based on work each has published about about the historical progression and future work of CFA in moving towards a more social justice- centered union. The second, “Power despite precarity,” is a conversation with longtime contingent faculty labor activists and scholars, Joe Berry and Helena Worthen, about their recent book, which looks at the history of the contingent faculty labor movement, provides an in-depth exploration of the case and contract of the California Faculty Association in regard to contingent faculty, and identifies strategies for the future.

Selections from 50 years of annual conference proceedings. Working with the National Center’s Director, Bill Herbert, the co-editors selected papers from each of the decades of the conference proceedings, for a baker’s dozen of papers. Inevitably, such a small selection of (thirteen) papers from such a long span of time means that many valuable and interesting papers have been left out. As we go through a brief discussion of the papers we’ve selected and why, we will also refer the reader to some examples of other such papers that we feel are particularly noteworthy, and/or that are authored by folks who have made important academic contributions in other professional conferences and academic journals as well. Further, we note and encourage you to search on the JCBA website, which has a tab to connect to the most downloaded papers.

A half century spans a long period of time encompassing many developments in higher education collective bargaining and society. In making our thirteen selections, we have sought to include conference papers that were timely, as markers of key historical developments, as well as timeless, pointing to enduring issues in collective bargaining. As we elaborate a bit below, it is striking how many issues have re-emerged or been in play in an ongoing way throughout the decades. At the same time, even so, as with the successive, iterative negotiation of collective bargaining agreements, which involves debate, deliberation, and negotiation around similar issues, each negotiation builds on the foundation of previous ones. History, then, informs, is there to be learned from, and is always carried in some manner into the present, even as it is newly negotiated for the future.

In collective bargaining in higher education, as in society, what may once have seemed settled law and/or practice can become surprisingly unsettled decades later. Here we are, fifty years after Roe v Wade, more than ever (re)litigating, negotiating and navigating issues of gender and women’s reproductive, medical, and travel rights in ways that directly implicate universities. So, too, over six decades after a civil rights movement and landmark Supreme Court decisions and legislation, we continue to (re)negotiate and navigate the rights of minoritized and marginalized people in ways that play out in and shape higher education. Just as we continue to (re)legislate, litigate, and negotiate the right to vote, so we see similar ongoing struggles in regard to the collective bargaining rights of different categories of (academic) employees in different sectors of higher education. For the National Center’s entire history, and each decade of the editors’ collective experience, higher education has been in the midst of and subject to an austerity agenda. The polarized politics of the 1960s and 1970s are present again in current attacks and legislation regarding, assaulting, and banning Critical Race Theory, LGBTQ+ rights, and more, violating the academic freedom, human rights, and dignity of members and institutions in the higher education world, more than five decades after Stonewall. As the saying goes, plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose.

As with collective bargaining negotiations, issues keep cycling back, as we see in selected papers of the past 50 years of conference proceedings. Yet it is not negotiated on the same territory by the same players with the same expectations as Nicholas DiGiovanni’s 2015 conference paper nicely articulates, and history and the future are not stories of linear, relentless, progress. Yet, if there is this ongoing back and forth, of two steps forward and one or more step(s) back, we hope and work towards that being in the context, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said, of a larger trajectory of and arc of the moral universe that bends towards justice. So, we see it is in higher education collective bargaining, with new groups of employees at the table and with a more expansive range of issues being negotiated to intersect workplace and social justice.

The conference papers we have selected are bookended by Sidney Hook’s 1973 essay on “The academic mission and collective bargaining,” and Thomas Auxter’s 2016 retrospective analysis, “Collective bargaining and labor representation for higher education in a ‘right to work’ environment.” The matters they address look to learn from the past and enhance the future of higher education, as characterizes our special issue.

As an NYU Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Hook reflects on competing philosophers and perspectives on how to organize academic work(ers), contrasting the views of John Dewey and Arthur Lovejoy, the first President and first General Secretary of the American Association of University Professors. Whereas Dewey was also a founding member and early officer of the American Federation of Teachers (and held membership card number 1), and strongly supported unions, Lovejoy was a proponent of professional associations as the preferred organizing model, opposing unions, and juxtaposing the idea of a job to a calling. The differing views, and the contrasting perspectives they offer on being a “professional” continue to play out in different forms in higher education. Indeed, that difference has been of ongoing relevance in the AAUP. And in a full circle moment, interestingly, this past year, the AFT and AAUP have formed an affiliation arrangement that appears to give the former the lead role in collective bargaining and the latter an ongoing, lead role in academic freedom and policy. Notably, the position that Hook comes to is an important one in looking to the future.

"I conclude from these and related considerations that intelligent choice today is not between acceptance or rejection of the principle of collective bargaining but between the different forms of collective bargaining. … [W]e must ask: under what form of collective bargaining can the academic mission best be preserved and strengthened?"

That is something for us all to consider.

Yet, as Auxter’s 2016 analysis considers, the question of whether and to what extent employees have collective bargaining rights continues to be a vexed and contested matter. In light of the Harris v Quinn and Janus v AFSCME Supreme Court decisions, effectively making all states in some regard “right to work,” Auxter provides a history of how the United Faculty of Florida, first established in 1976, has navigated this environment, and the transformations it has undergone in the process. A central part of the story is its experience and developed capacity to effectively navigate state-level politics with legislatures and governors that had anti-union and anti-faculty agendas. Given how developments in Florida are currently unfolding, that is a particularly relevant historical context with valuable lessons for action.

Joel M. Douglas’ 1981 paper, “The Yeshiva case: One year later,” addresses an earlier, defining Supreme Court decision that has had profound effects on collective bargaining in higher education. If Douglas’ perspective is of one year later, we know now its ongoing ripple effects on the bargaining rights of faculty. That is particularly true in the independent sector of higher education, where Yeshiva has inhibited the growth of tenure-stream faculty units in private colleges and universities. It is true as well of contingent faculty with influence on governance. And the ripple effect has extended into public sector higher education as well. For example, in 2010, following Wisconsin’s attack on public sector employees’ bargaining rights (excepting police and firefighters) a piece of state legislation in Ohio that was signed and then repealed in a referendum, included Yeshiva-like language eliminating full-time faculty’s collective bargaining rights if they had a role in governance.

Going back to the 1973 conference proceedings, we also have selected Margaret Chandler and Connie Chiang’s paper, “Management rights issues in collective bargaining in higher education.” The paper provides a thorough, empirical, and what can serve for us now as a baseline analysis of management rights and faculty rights in ninety-one collective bargaining agreements (seventy of which were in community colleges, reflecting the predominance of this sector in higher education collective bargaining), modeling what has become a more consistent part of the National Center’s work under Bill Herbert’s leadership. Thus, now, we see the National Center not only collecting and cataloging contracts, but also detailing and analyzing developments in collective bargaining, expanding now to include data on strikes.

From almost a quarter century later, we selected Ernst Benjamin’s 1997 paper, “Faculty, unions, and management,” which provides a faculty perspective on faculty and management rights in collective bargaining. In contrast to Chandler and Chiang’s piece, this is not a detailed analysis of collective bargaining agreement language. Rather, it offers a thoughtful take on the subject that focuses on court cases, and particularly on shared governance, which, as Benjamin says, “can and often does coexist successfully with collective bargaining, to the benefit of the academic mission of the institution.” Although it is important to place this issue in the context of the early days of debating whether shared governance in the form of faculty senates and collective bargaining can coexist, it is also a matter of enduring significance in the adjudication of faculty’s collective bargaining rights, particularly in private institutions. We also direct attention in the papers of the 1997 proceedings to the related institutional governance and partisan politics issue, which we see much of today, in the form of “activist” trustees and the role of faculty unions in response to them in governance matters, in papers by a SUNY trustee, Candace deRussy, and by UUP President, William E. Scheuerman.

Two other papers, in 1988 Edward R. Hines’ “State support for higher education: A twenty year contextual analysis,” and in 1994, Christine Maitland’s “Collective bargaining and technology,” address issues of enduring significance. Hines’ paper offers historical perspective from Illinois State’s Grapevine report that tracks the fundamental shift in public higher education in relative declines in state appropriations versus significant increases in tuition and fees. The combined framing of a policy context in terms of an austerity agenda with climbing college costs for students has for half a century been at the center of collective bargaining negotiations.

So, too, as it is for all workers and industries, the introduction of new technologies, in this case, instructional and delivery technologies is an enduring focus of negotiations between labor and management. Maitland’s thorough empirical analysis of collective bargaining agreements nationally speaks to patterns in the workload, compensation, and intellectual property provisions that have been negotiated. The broad pattern is of provisions being more “defensive” in giving some protections to faculty and ensuring compensation and some level of claims on copyright for distance education courses than they are proactive in ensuring faculty voice in decision making around instructional technology issues. Contract language was more common and extensive in community college contracts, but overall was still limited in terms of the number of contracts with provisions and their scope. For a more current perspective, nearly two decades later, in a 2016 conference paper, “Copyleft, copyright, and copy for the public interest,” and in a 2015 JCBA article, “What are we negotiating for: Public interest bargaining,” Gary Rhoades details the more extensive incidence of contract provisions on technology issues, and offers examples of contract provisions that proactively address public interest issues surrounding technology use and training, and distance education intellectual property rights that go beyond the immediate interests of the two parties at the bargaining table.

On another matter of enduring significance, two of the papers we selected focus on contingent faculty employment. One, by Frank Cosco, in 2008, “Vancouver Community College, New models of contingent faculty inclusion,” features what for many in the contingent faculty labor movement, serves as one of the gold standards of collective bargaining agreements. It also is an example of the several papers over the years addressing collective bargaining in Canada. Further, it focuses on the institutional realm of community colleges that ironically, given its predominance in terms of union density, is under-emphasized in the papers.

A second paper, in 2015 by Karen Stubaus, “The professionalization of non-tenure track faculty in the United States: Three case studies,” details the history and current status of non-tenure track faculty, whose numbers have been expanding considerably. Through the vehicle of three cases, Stubaus provides significant insight into the different configurations by which, within and beyond the collective bargaining agreement, non-tenure track faculty have negotiated improved, more professional working conditions that have incorporated them more into the academic life of their institutions and academic units. The cases of Rutgers University, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Oregon each provide quite a different take in the configuration of the bargaining units, which speaks to significant differences in institutional history and state law. And yet in each case, similar issues are addressed.

On the issue of adjunct faculty, we also want to call attention historically to the 1982 conference proceedings with one of the first discussions of the increased use of adjunct faculty. Nancy L. Hodes, Deputy Director of the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations in New York provides a frank discussion of the political and economic rationales (“Use Justified”) for the hiring of larger numbers of “part-timers” (the dehumanizing and inaccurate term is in itself a marker of the times), entitled, “The use and abuse of part-timers-I: Casual employees, scabs, or saviors?” The companion, Part II piece is written by Nuala McGann Drescher, President of the United University Professions, who speaks to the legitimacy and quality of these faculty, and the need to strengthen collective bargaining rights and working conditions for them, integrating them into bargaining units. She also importantly draws attention to the “affirmative action” dimension of exploiting these faculty, given the larger proportions of them who are women. At this point, both contributions center a claim or a concern about the erosion of full-time faculty. To give a sense of the changing times, a recent contribution to JCBA (Rhoades, 2021) points to contingent faculty’s centrality to and leadership in the academic labor movement.

One of the papers we selected addresses another employment segment, graduate employees, that, as with contingent faculty, has experienced dramatic increases in the growth of new bargaining units in the 2000s, as detailed in Bill Herbert’s 2016 JCBA article, “The winds of changes shift: An analysis of recent growth in bargaining units and representation efforts in higher education.” The 1999 conference paper, “The Current Status of Graduate Student Unions: An Employer's Perspective,” by Daniel J. Julius provides a turn-of-the-century summary of graduate employee unionization. He offers an extensive review of national patterns and issues in relation to this realm of organizing, from a management perspective as well as of someone who has published on these issues. The timing of this review is noteworthy, as in the next two decades graduate employee unionization proliferated, particularly in the private sector, as the National Center’s Bill Herbert’s 2016 JCBA piece, “The winds of changes shift,” documents. Moreover, the subsequent decades have seen several NLRB rulings and reversals, as well as state-level employment board rulings that have also influenced patterns of graduate student unionization. Further, that realm of organizing and negotiation has seen a significant expansion of the sorts of issues addressed in collective bargaining, centering social justice issues, a point nicely captured in another paper we refer you to, Jon Curtiss’ 2015 history and discussion of important current issues, in bargaining for one of the earliest and most important graduate student unions, the Graduate Employees Organization at the University of Michigan.

On the latter matter, we have selected two papers that address social justice issues. The first is a 1993 paper by Rachel Hendrickson, “Sexual harassment on campus and a union’s dilemma.” It is part of an entire section of papers on discrimination, including several papers on the Americans with Disabilities Act and on pay equity. Hendrickson offers an analysis of national data on collective bargaining agreements, first noting that relatively few address sexual harassment in any great detail, and then providing some examples of contracts that in contrast contain extensive language. As well, she walks through the various questions that surround how to address sexual harassment in relation to the campus policies and procedures that are being developed and applied outside of collective bargaining. Notably, Hendrickson closes by encouraging labor and management “to institute training for all supervisors and faculty and to provide it on an ongoing basis.” That suggestion is all the more relevant today, three decades later. It is also notable that although much attention is directed in the paper to campus-based processes, one of the almost universal demands of graduate and postdoc unions today, after decades of largely unsatisfactory experience of institutions’ handling of such matters, is for access to independent external arbitration in matters of harassment and discrimination.

A decade earlier, the 1984 conference also had a series of papers on sex discrimination. Although it is not as focused on collective bargaining, there are some good contributions, including an overview by Bernice Resnick Sandler addressing the “times that try men’s souls.” There are also contributions on case law, and on comparable worth and grievance claims. A paper that is focused on collective bargaining is Nina Rothchild’s case study of the Minnesota experience in relation to the state’s collective bargaining law and comparable worth legislation.

A second paper we have selected on social justice issues is a 2015 conference paper by Derryn Moten, of Alabama State University, addressing social and labor justice in the context of HBCUs, in “The history of collective bargaining in higher education: The case of HBCUs.” In an historical review of HBCUs that intersects with racial justice and class-based justice through unionization issues, Moten calls our attention to the fact that Howard University was the site of the AFT’s first higher education affiliate, Local 33, in 1918 (though it disbanded in 1921).

In a revealing analysis of anti-labor laws and policy in the Reconstruction years, and in the 20^th century with anti-strike and “right to work” laws in Alabama, Moten intersects labor history with the history of Jim Crow and White Supremacy in the South. The lessons for the academic labor movement in intersecting workplace and social justice should be clear. In addition to pointing to those HBCUs in which faculty are unionized (in most cases, with AAUP affiliates), Moten bookends his piece with two historical quotes. The first, from 1920, is about White paternalism and HBCUs, “Neither the prestige nor the income of any Negro college has ever been appreciably augmented by the administration of a white president,” relating the point to desirable working conditions as well. Moten sets up the second quote with a forward-looking call to current Black presidents and faculty of HBCUs in relation to respecting and not fighting the collective bargaining efforts of employees: “[G]iven the racial history of HBCUs, it might seem ironic that the fight has moved from a struggle between Black folk and White folk over equitable treatment to a struggle where Black folk fight with Black folk over equitable treatment.” The last line of Moten’s paper is a Frederick Douglas quote, “Power concedes nothing without a demand.” Fast forward 100 years, after Moten’s article, and the non-tenure track faculty at Howard University have done precisely that, successfully unionized, affiliated with SEIU Local 500, and signed collective bargaining agreements in 2022.

Finally, we have selected Nicholas DiGiovanni’s 2015 paper, “This much I know is true: The five intangible influences on collective bargaining.” It is among the most downloaded items from the website. And in many ways, it encapsulates the gestalt of academic collective bargaining. Based on nearly four decades of experience, DiGiovanni speaks to the intricacies and subtleties of the bargaining process, each round and cycle of which is somewhat unpredictable. Focusing on the process and performance of negotiating at the table, he identifies five factors that are part of the contingency of how the bargaining will play out—history, expectations, the nature and character of the players, timing, and catharsis. It is a profoundly practical reminder that for all the formal, legal dimensions of the process, collective bargaining is a human process, in which cultural and affective influences play out.

Finally, as a preface to the Baker’s Dozen of exemplary proceedings papers republished in this Volume, Daniel J. Julius has provided a contemporary commentary and a perspective on some academic collective bargaining “small world” observations spanning 50 years of National Center conferences.

We sincerely hope that you enjoy Volume 14, honoring the National Center’s 50^th anniversary. We hope as well that this issue (as do the journal, the annual conference, and the Center) serves the goal of enhancing our collective future by sharing and circulating the collective experience, expertise, empirical analysis, insight, and wisdom of our contributors and community. For that is at the heart of the National Center’s mission and work.

Eds.

Op-Ed:

A New Foundation, Revisited by Richard J. Boris

Articles:

Protecting Academic Freedom Through Collective Bargaining: An AAUP Perspective by Michael Mauer

In the Beginning, Long Time Ago: A Brief History of the National Center’s Origin and Evolution by William A. Herbert

Power Despite Precarity: A Conversation with the Authors, Joe Berry and Helena Worthen by Gary Rhoades

Centering Anti-Racism and Social Justice, Toward A More Perfect Union: A Conversation with the Authors, Cecil E. Canton and Charles Toombs

by Gary Rhoades

Practitioner Perspective:

Factors that Led to Crossing the Picket-Line: An Autoethnography of a Faculty Striker by Giovanna Follo

Proceedings Materials:

50th Anniversary: Proceedings of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions by Daniel J. Julius

The Academic Mission and Collective Bargaining by Sidney Hook

Management Rights Issues in Collective Bargaining in Higher Education by

Margaret K. Chandler and Connie Chiang

The Yeshiva Case: One Year Later by Joel M. Douglas

State Support of Higher Education: A 20-Year Contextual Analysis Using Two-Year Percentage Gains In State Tax Appropriations by Edward R. Hines

Sexual Harassment on Campus and a Union's Dilemma by Rachel Hendrickson

Collective Bargaining and Technology by Christine Maitland

Faculty and Management Rights In Higher Education Collective Bargaining: A Faculty Perspective by Ernst Benjamin

The Current Status of Graduate Student Unions: An Employer's Perspective

by Daniel J. Julius

New Models of Contingent Faculty Inclusion by Frank Cosco

The Professionalizaton of Non-Tenure Track Faculty in the United States: Three Case Studies From Public Research Institutions: Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, and University of Oregon by Karen Stubaus

This Much I Know is True: The Five Intangible Influences on Collective Bargaining by Nicholas DiGiovanni Jr.

The History Of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education: The Case of HBCUs

by Derryn Moten

Collective Bargaining and Labor Representation for Higher Education in a “Right to Work” Environment by Thomas Auxter

The Journal is an open access, peer-reviewed, online periodical, the purpose of which is to advance research and scholarly thought related to academic collective bargaining and to make relevant and pragmatic peer-reviewed research readily accessible to practitioners and to scholars in the field.

We encourage scholars and practitioners in the fields of collective bargaining, labor relations, and labor history to submit articles for potential publication in future volumes.

The Journal is supported, in part, by a generous contribution from TIAA and is hosted by the institutional repository of Eastern Illinois University.

New Book: Contingent Faculty and the Remaking of Higher Education:

A Labor History, edited by Eric Fure-Slocum and Claire Goldstene