Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to share that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 205 has withdrawn its pending petition to unionize non-tenure track faculty (NTT) in the College of Arts and Science.

The SEIU contacted National Labor Relations Board Regional (NLRB) Director John D. Doyle Jr. on Nov. 26, 2018, requesting to withdraw the petition filed Feb. 16, 2017. Regional Director Doyle approved that request today.

This means that the election and the university’s subsequent challenges to it are now closed. The ballots cast in the June 6, 2017, election will not be counted. The pending appeal before the NLRB, which included the university’s request for review of the acting regional director’s pre-election decision and order and the university’s request for review of the regional director’s decision on challenged ballots, will not be decided. There are no longer any active petitions at the NLRB by any union seeking to represent Vanderbilt University faculty.

This has been an incredibly long process, and I am thankful to all for communicating openly during this time and carefully considering the significance of such decisions for our community. We continue to be dedicated to ensuring transparency and collaboration through shared governance with Vanderbilt faculty, and we remain fully committed to doing so in the future. Together, we work to ensure our excellence in teaching, research and service.

We are also positioned to build upon our track record of cooperating to find solutions to issues of concern. In close partnership with full-time non-tenure track and tenure-track faculty members, we have launched several new initiatives to address topics that surfaced during the COACHE survey, with an emphasis on shared governance, faculty developmentand research support for NTT faculty. These include:

• The Faculty Insights Serieslaunched in the fall of 2017 and includes workshops that are led by NTT faculty and are specifically designed to address issues experienced by NTT faculty.  Two of these workshops are just around the corner: “Get Published: A Research and Publication Workshop for Non-Tenure Track Faculty in the Humanities and Social Sciences” takes place on January 15 and “Get Published: A Research and Publication Workshop for Non-Tenure Track Faculty in Engineering and the Sciences” on January 30. Additional details will be published in MyVU and on the Faculty Affairs websiteas soon as they are finalized.
• The new University Faculty Development Committeelaunched in the summer of 2018 to promote and foster professional development of faculty in all tracks and ranks. During the 2018-19 academic year, committee co-chairs Alyssa Hasty, Basic Sciences, and Melissa Snarr, Divinity, and their inclusive committee are focused on faculty mentoring by examining current programs and proposing a set of best practices to guide all colleges and schools.With this and all of our committees, we are committed to NTT faculty representation.
• This year as in years past, we have recognized and supported the research of non-tenure track faculty through internally funded or directed grants.  For example, this year’s SEC Visiting Faculty Travel Grant award winnersincluded two NTT faculty out of a total of 8. The 2018 Research Scholars Grant programawarded one of two faculty development grants and two of four summer stipends to NTT faculty.

We look forward to building and expanding on these efforts to ensure the continued development and professional success of all of our faculty.

Again, thank you for your patience and engagement throughout this process. As always, I am available to talk if you have any questions, as is Interim Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Tracey George.

Sincerely,

Susan R. Wente

Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs