December 6, 2006

To: Part-Time Faculty
From: Donald Lehman, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

Subject: Part-Time Faculty Unionization Update

As many of you are aware, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last week upheld the determination of the National Labor Relations Board regarding the certification of the election in which Local 500 of the Service Employees International Union prevailed by 10 votes. We have concluded that the University community, including our faculty, staff, and, most importantly, our students, would not be well-served by further appeals. As we have said all along, the University abides by the rule of law and will respect the results of the judicial review process. Therefore, the University will not be requesting further court action in this case. 

Many of you will have questions about what this means for you personally. We are updating our website (unionization.gwu.edu) to anticipate some of those questions. If you have others, please feel free to submit them through the feedback section of the website.

I will continue to update you as we move through the collective bargaining process and look forward to hearing your thoughts as well.

On behalf of President Trachtenberg and myself, I wish you a happy and relaxing holiday season.