Dear Marquette community,
The contributions of our faculty and staff are essential to provide our students a transformational education rooted in our Catholic, Jesuit mission at Marquette. When we work together, our collective impact contributes not only to a better Marquette, but to a better world.
For the past several years, the university has been working collaboratively with participating (non-tenure track) faculty to celebrate their important contributions and to address challenges. In June 2019, the university convened a Participating Faculty Task Force to better understand the experience of Marquette’s full- and part-time participating faculty.
Since then, the task force worked on 22 recommendations to improve the lived experience of participating faculty in five key areas: contract terms, compensation and Total Rewards, performance evaluation and promotion, professional development, and recognition and inclusion. While we still have work to do, we have accomplished a lot and have made progress on all the recommendations.
Among the resulting actions the university has taken to benefit participating faculty are:
- Offering multi-year contracts to eligible full-time participating faculty who meet the policy criteria
- Criteria to provide pathways for promotion where none had previously existed
- Multiple recognition awards for research and teaching excellence
- A $10,000 annual fund for faculty professional development awards
- A $10,000 annual fund to support faculty research
- Opportunity for all full-time faculty to be included in the annual merit pool
- Additional salary increases beyond the average merit increase
- A course cancellation fee to be paid to participating faculty if a course is canceled after a contract has been signed
Despite these and other steps forward, the Office of the Provost was recently approached by two non-tenure-track faculty members seeking a union to include all Klingler College of Arts and Sciences full-time, non-tenure-track faculty. Marquette continues to believe that our community, and especially our students, are best served by working collaboratively with all our faculty — who have a distinct role in delivering our Catholic, Jesuit mission — without needing to engage the union as an outside third party.
To protect the direct relationship with our faculty that is critical to our Catholic, Jesuit intellectual life at Marquette, the university is invoking its legal right for a religious exemption from National Labor Relations Board oversight. We believe that maintaining our direct relationship with all our faculty and continuing our shared work to enhance the lived experience of faculty is the best path to preserve our autonomy, serve our students and care for our community. We have sought the perspective of our Board of Trustees, and after much thoughtful dialogue and discernment, the board has also concluded that this approach aligns with our shared commitment to care for both our people and the institution.
Marquette has a long and proud history of providing an education that transforms the lives of our students so they can in turn improve our world. We have a shared responsibility to make decisions that reflect the reality of the higher education environment nationally. That includes improving compensation for faculty and staff while being vigilant about keeping a Marquette education affordable for students.
Our 143-year history as a Catholic, Jesuit institution qualifies Marquette as exempt from NLRB jurisdiction. A series of court and NLRB decisions have upheld this as an established precedent, including within the last month at Saint Leo University. Boston College and Seattle University, who are part of our Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities network, have previously declared their exemption, as well. Ultimately, the religious exemption is about the Constitution’s First Amendment protection of religious freedom from government regulation — widely regarded as one of America’s most important rights.
Continuing our strong partnership with faculty and staff — without engaging an outside third party that may not share our same values — is the best way to deliver our Catholic, Jesuit mission and serve our students. We will continue to work directly with our colleagues as we become, together, the Marquette University we are called to be.
Sincerely,
Dr. Kimo Ah Yun
Acting president and provost
Ralph Weber
Vice president and general counsel
