BY A SAINT LEO UNIVERSITY FACULTY MEMBER
In the face of challenging and even perilous working conditions, teachers at all levels need unions to help protect them during the pandemic. However, one university in Florida used the pandemic as an opportunity for union busting.
The story of the unilateral disenfranchisement of faculty members at Saint Leo University is remarkable for the number of faulty (yet familiar) arguments the administration is deploying to justify its actions. The story can serve as a cautionary case study for all faculty who want to prepare for the erosion of working conditions and rules.
On a late Friday afternoon, October 23, 2020, three emails rapidly flowed into the inboxes of Saint Leo faculty members. All carried the same news. The board of trustees had voted “to no longer recognize the United Faculty of Florida Union at Saint Leo as a collective bargaining unit.”
The United Faculty of Saint Leo University has represented full-time faculty on the main campus, located just north of Tampa, for forty-four years. The chapter’s president was notified only five minutes before the flood of emails from the board’s chair, the vice president of academic affairs (VPAA), and university president Jeffrey Senese. The news was shocking because the administration had never shared its intentions nor allowed any faculty representation, union or otherwise, at the board meeting where the vote occurred.
The board chair explained, “In keeping with our Benedictine Catholic identity, the board made this decision in the spirit of helping the university maintain our strong values-based community, innovate, and be more agile in the fast-moving world of higher education.” President Senese also cited the university’s Catholic identity while claiming that COVID-19 “has illustrated the need for Saint Leo to be nimble and flexible.” The university is proposing what it calls “a shared governance model” in place of the union, and the administration has moved quickly in implementing it unilaterally. Without any input from faculty, VPAA Mary Spoto appointed a committee, declaring its purpose as the creation of a new faculty handbook by the end of the calendar year and promising that faculty work groups will follow. In the meantime, the university senate will be disbanded and replaced later with a new faculty senate.
In his email, President Senese referred to the recent (Trump-appointee-dominated) National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) “ruling to end oversight of faith-based universities,” claiming that those “who cherish the freedom of religion, like the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU), see this as a positive step forward.” In fact, the ACCU issued a statement after the NLRB’s decision declaring, “We have consistently noted that unions have been welcomed on a number of our Catholic campuses.” The ACCU made clear its support for unions and explained that the method previously used for oversight by the NLRB (based on the precedent of a Pacific Lutheran University case) was the problem.
A shared governance model existed already at Saint Leo with a union chapter that actively participated in negotiations with administration to best support the educational mission of the university and a university senate that included faculty (from the main campus and education centers in Florida and four other states, with adjunct representation) and staff, as well as the student government president—and this model has worked with great success. The union’s contract can only be voted on by members, but the union represents the interests of all full-time faculty members on campus, whether they are union members or not. To that end, the union communicates regularly with all faculty, offers plentiful opportunities for feedback from all faculty, and protects all faculty rights through a clearly articulated grievance process that benefits the university as a whole. Sadly, the faculty of Saint Leo’s education centers are not permitted to be members, although the union has attempted to include them in the bargaining unit and represents their interests as well.
As for the need to respond to the pandemic, faculty at Saint Leo are typical faculty, caring deeply about the success of their students and of their university. The union is not in place to obstruct plans to “pivot swiftly when necessary” but to expedite those plans that are of benefit to all. In fact, Saint Leo faculty are in the classroom at personal risk to their own health, showing deep commitment to the education of Saint Leo students.
Like our colleagues on campuses across the United States, Saint Leo faculty members know that unions strengthen community, uphold integrity, and foster mutual respect—exemplifying three of the core values Saint Leo highlights in its mission statement. Surely a “shared governance” system whose roots began with a complete lack of consultation with faculty fails the test of those core values. The existing and effective shared governance model that includes a union can best usher Saint Leo forward into the future.
Colleagues throughout the profession should study the Saint Leo case as an example of how an administration can exploit crises to weaken the strength of the very faculty members who could expertly address those crises. They should take note of the many ways in which administrations try to use crises to avoid compliance with best practices and standards.
The guest blogger is a faculty member at Saint Leo University who prefers to remain anonymous.
Like many of the recent posts about anti-union actions taken by college administrations and boards of trustees, attention must be paid to THE CONTRACT. IF the union’s contract with St. Leo’s allows the institution to abrogate its “deal” with the United Faculty of Florida Union, then perhaps the union’s attorneys did not read the fine print. The contract should have a provision that either puts a timeline on representation or has a force majeure provision that allows the university to claim financial exigencies.
I empathize with the faculty who may suffer layoffs, reductions, and lack of adequate representation. I also empathize with students who may suffer unintended consequences.
Nonetheless, without more information about the SPECFIC terms of the contract, I am in no position to evaluate the competing claims of faculty and administration. I’m usually a strong union supporter and the courts MAY be the “savior” for the UFFU, provided that it has legal grounds IN THE CONTRACT to reverse this apparently unilateral decision.
Yes, I agree with he blogger’s final paragraph: “Colleagues throughout the profession should study the Saint Leo case as an example of how an administration can exploit crises to weaken the strength of the very faculty members who could expertly address those crises. They should take note of the many ways in which administrations try to use crises to avoid compliance with best practices and standards.”
But they should study this situation — and related ones — in drafting contracts, so that there are no loopholes by which administrations can use any emergency (health, financial, war, climate, etc.) to rip up that contract.