Dear Colleagues,

I hope you have had a great summer.  As we all start to prepare for the new academic year, I’m writing to provide an update on the next steps related to the challenged votes in the union election for non-tenure track faculty in the College of Arts and Science.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has now concluded the hearing that began July 6 to resolve the remaining challenged votes. Currently, both the university and the SEIU have a week to submit their final briefs.

As Vice Provost John Geer shared in his message to faculty July 12, the university sought a resolution of all outstanding issues with the union prior to the hearing. Unfortunately, the SEIU declined to discuss the university’s proposal. Thus, the next step in the process is for the hearing officer to issue a recommendation on the challenged votes, which will likely come in early September. After that is issued, the parties will have two weeks to appeal the report to the Regional Director.  The Regional Director will then have two weeks to respond to the appeal. If neither party appeals the hearing officer’s report, the Region can adopt the report or may make other findings. Depending on the outcome of that process, further appeal to the NLRB is possible and could take up to six additional months.

As we’ve said from the beginning of this process, our goal is to be as transparent as possible while also upholding the values that make our university unique. We’ll continue to approach this process in good faith and with the well-being of the Vanderbilt community and its faculty top of mind. Please do not hesitate to reach out in the meantime with any questions or concerns, and to visit the faculty unionization website for more information.

Sincerely,

Susan R. Wente

Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs