Update on Union Negotiations

Dear members of the AS&E community, 

In an email to our school communities sent last Friday, we gave you an update on various collective bargaining negotiations underway at the university. At the conclusion of that letter, we wrote: 

We anticipate everyone involved will respect our community values and one another’s right to enjoy the new semester without disruption. While we support the units’ engagement with our campus, any actions or activities that create a hostile campus environment, endanger public safety, or violate our Student Code of Conduct will be addressed by the appropriate members of our staff. 

We wish to make it very clear that nothing in our communication to you, or in the Student Code of Conduct, should be interpreted as restricting your lawful rights under the National Labor Relations Act to engage in protected concerted activity related to terms and conditions of employment.  

Tufts respects the rights of all our employees, including students who have taken on work responsibilities such as our undergraduate resident assistants and our graduate student workers, to engage in concerted, protected activity, including the right to unionize. In applying the Student Code in particular, we will not do so in a way that discourages or penalizes anyone in the exercise of such rights. As we regularly update the code, we will make sure this clarification is incorporated shortly. 

Respectfully yours, 

James M. Glaser
Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences
Professor of Political Sciences

Kyongbum Lee
Dean of the School of Engineering
Karol Family Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Bárbara M. Brizuela
Dean, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Professor of Education

Scheri Fultineer
Dean of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts
Professor of the Practice

Camille Lizarríbar, JD, PhD
Dean of Students and Chief Student Life Officer for AS&E