Non-tenure-track faculty at Siena College voted to form a collective bargaining unit affiliated with Service Employees International Union, they announced Wednesday. The vote was 86 to 27 among adjuncts and 16 to 5 among visiting professors. Siena is the second New York campus in a week to approve an SEIU-affiliated adjunct union, after Ithaca College. Both drives are part of SEIU’s Adjunct Action campaign to organize adjuncts across metro areas.

Mara Drogan, a visiting assistant professor of history at Siena, said in a statement she hoped the union would help set new standards for faculty pay, benefits and working conditions across the Albany region and beyond. Siena said in statement to the Times-Union that as a Franciscan and Catholic institution, “we recognize and respect the dignity of work, the right of workers to organize and the need for all workers to make informed decisions.” The statement said the college was committed to “productive dialogue” with the bargaining unit.