Albany

Full-time faculty at The College of Saint Rose woke up Saturday morning to a lengthy email from the college president warning them that any efforts on their part to unionize would not just fail, but would put the college's future in jeopardy.

President Carolyn Stefanco said she's been approached by various faculty members about an attempt by some of their full-time tenured and tenure-track colleagues to organize a union, according to an email obtained by the Times Union.

"Although no union supporter has approached the administration to discuss the issue directly, I want to be transparent about the administration's stance," she wrote. "Faculty members have the right to support or oppose a union. However, as a former union member and administrator in a unionized environment, I believe that particularly at this time, a union of our full-time faculty would not be in the best interests of the college or our faculty."

The attempt comes about one year after adjunct faculty at the college voted to form a union. The adjuncts, who teach 30 percent of the college's classes, are represented by Service Employees International Union, which remains in negotiations with administration over a contract.

SEIU Local 200 United organizer Sean Collins said that if full-time faculty do seek to unionize, they would seek voluntary recognition from the administration — a move that doesn't seem likely based on the position Stefanco outlined in her email.

"Trying to unionize will waste precious time and resources, and will not be successful legally," Stefanco wrote.

She pointed to an effort in the late 1980s when full-time faculty tried to organize under the National Education Association. The college argued, at the time, that full-time faculty are professionals and managers, not mere employees, and therefore had no right to form a union. This argument was backed by the National Labor Relations Board and a 1980 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

But the board issued a new ruling in December 2014 that could open the door for more faculty members to unionize. This ruling rejected the full-time-faculty-are-managers argument in the 1980 court decision and instead offered a test for evaluating whether faculty members at private colleges have enough power to be considered managers. Union officials say they expect this ruling to be challenged in court.

College spokeswoman Lisa Haley Thomson said whether the administration would voluntarily recognize a favorable union vote is a discussion it prefers to have directly with faculty, not with the press.

She added that full-time faculty already play a "very strong role" in decisions and governance, and that the administration is eager to work even more with them on decisions affecting the future of the college, which is facing faculty and program cuts this year.

Stefanco, in her email, said union representation would mean trading the protections offered by the current faculty manual for the "uncertainty" of a collective bargaining agreement, which would be negotiated by "a few union leaders who may not have your interests or the interests of the college at heart."

A union cannot fix the college's deficit, boost enrollment or improve the college's liquidity, she wrote.

"If anything, the union is likely to steepen the path to a sustainable future," she wrote. "The legal implications and potentially confrontational approach will distract us from the important task of ensuring the sustainability of the college."

Full-time faculty are focused on talking to their colleagues and building further support for a union, Collins said in an email.

"As such they see no need to respond to Dr. Stefanco's threatening letter," he said.

bbump@timesunion.com - 518-454-5387 - @bethanybump