Higher Education and Labor Relations

Abstract

I have been asked to comment in a field in which I am a novice, namely that of arbitration. I have only recently taken vows in that order and remain still very humble in the company of those already long accepted into the faith and practice. I am, in a word, quite incompetent and incapable of taking issue with Mother Superior. I have decided, therefore, not to question revealed truth, but to accept and ponder it, yea, with gratitude as today's lesson to be learned. What I should like to do is to raise novice's questions in a somewhat special corner of the field to which I have been granted admission and where I have had some limited experience. I refer to the problems raised in labor relations and specifically in arbitration in higher education, both public and private. The issues here derive from the nature of this distinct kind of institution. I refer now both to colleges and universities, though not to the community colleges which in their developing--not to say rigidifying--labor relations give every evidence of preferring the kinds of contracts, conditions, and remedies acceptable and accepted in the high schools.