Since 2011 the ability of adjunct professors at Saint Xavier University to form a union has been disputed.
The National Labor Relations Board gave adjuncts the right to form a union then, but Saint Xavier University appealed the decision and the decision to that appeal has yet to be given. This is because the National Labor Relations Board was unfilled until this past July and has a backlog of cases.
This very complicated case is polarized. The two sides are the adjuncts and the administration of Saint Xavier University. Their main difference is how they choose to define the case.
“This case is about jurisdiction, not about the rights of workers, which is the power of government to step in and decide controversies like this. In order to do that they [the government] have make findings about whether or not we are a catholic institution, and it is simply not able to do that. Our Catholic identity is determined by the church, the bishops and our compliance with documents like Ex Corde Ecclesiae,” said Saint Xavier University President, Christine M. Wiseman. Saint Xavier University claims that they are exempt from the National Labor Relations Board’s decisions because they are a religious institution.
The NLRB, however, has decided that Saint Xavier does not have “substantial religious character.”
Adjuncts disagree. One adjunct professor, that would like to remain anonymous, said the two issues of religious identity and adjunct representation are the same issue. She cited the “hypocrisy of the university. It accepts money from the government in the form of scholarships, grants, etc., yet they claim an exception from the National Labor Relations Board’s Decisions. Quite frankly, they want the benefits from the government without with following the rules that come with it, including giving us [adjuncts] rights.”
Currently, there is an Adjunct Council, which is an elected group of adjuncts that meet with the president on a regular basis. They were elected last spring. “We don’t have any money and can’t make anything happen unless the president goes along with it, but we are mandated to represent the interest of adjuncts,” said SXU adjunct Instructor of History, James Kollros.
He also wants students to know that, “there are a lot of adjuncts that work at two or three different schools just to make ends meet, because our wages are so low. And that makes it hard for the student’s teachers to devote enough time to them or to identify with any particular school. So, I think students insist on better treatment for adjuncts because if we don’t get it it’s going to hurt the students and adjuncts both.”
David Rodriguez
News Editor