LETTER TO THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY (printer-friendly version)(printer-friendly version (PDF))

August 31, 2004

As many of you already know, Local 500 of the Service Employees International Union (Service Employees or SEIU) filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to represent a major portion of GW’s part-time faculty. As the start of the school year — and the election — approaches, I would like to say just a few things to the University community and to the part-time faculty in particular about the upcoming election.

First, I want to remind our part-time faculty about the importance of the election that will determine whether or not the Service Employees union should be permitted to represent the University’s part-time faculty as its exclusive agent, and therefore, the importance of all eligible faculty exercising their right to vote.

The election will be held entirely by mail ballot and eligible voters will have from October 4 through October 19, 2004, to complete and return their mail ballots. It will be overseen by the NLRB. The vote will affect all GW part-time faculty and regular part-time faculty, excluding faculty in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences and at the University’s Hampton Roads campus. Part-time faculty who will be eligible to vote in the election have taught in at least two semesters within the following four semesters: Spring 2003, Fall 2003, Spring 2004, and Fall 2004. Therefore, there will be many part-time faculty who are not teaching this Fall semester who still will be eligible to vote. Part-time faculty who have taught in only one of these semesters will not be eligible to vote.

Second, as the election draws closer, you will likely hear and see more from both the University and the Service Employees regarding the issues surrounding part-time faculty unionization. While we may have strong disagreements on whether unionization is in the best interests of the part-time faculty, the University will do its part to keep the dialogue respectful and consistent with our high standards as a community of scholars. We hope that Service Employees union representatives do the same, and respect faculty’s right to teach their classes without interruption or disruption.

Finally, to learn more about the issues involved in union representation, I encourage you to visit the University’s Web site at www.unionization.gwu.edu (where you will also find more information about the events that led to the direction of an election by the NLRB). However, briefly, the University’s academic leadership has significant concerns about the unionization of part-time faculty, especially as it will affect the University’s academic strategic plan and the nature of classroom instruction at GW (i.e., course schedules, workloads, appointment and reappointment procedures, and hours of work).

Best wishes to all for a successful and rewarding semester.

Donald R. Lehman
Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and George Gamow Professor of Theoretical Physics