A National Labor Relations Board regional director has ruled that faculty at Manhattan College in New York City have the right to hold a representation election. The decision is the second time in two years that an NLRB administrator has ruled in favor of faculty at a private college--developments that hold exciting prospects for private sector college organizing.

The case was brought to the board 18 months ago by the Manhattan College Faculty Coalition (MACFAC), with the assistance of the New York State United Teachers. In an 81-page decision, NLRB regional director Daniel Silverman ruled on two key precedents that have barred private college collective bargaining in the past: NLRB vs. Catholic Bishop of Chicago and NLRB vs. Yeshiva University.

On the first issue, the question was whether an NLRB ruling would interfere with the college's religious freedom. Silverman found that while the Roman Catholic college is controlled by the Order of the LaSallian Brothers of Christian Schools and reflects a Catholic philosophy, it effectively operates "outside the control and authority of either the Church or the Order." Its board is made up primarily of lay people and has been for 20 years. Therefore, allowing faculty to bargain would not infringe on the religious freedom of the college.

On the second issue, the Supreme Court ruled in Yeshiva that faculty were managers because of their academic governance role at Yeshiva University and therefore were prohibited from bargaining. In the Manhattan College case, Silverman found that the faculty role in academic and other policymaking spheres is fundamentally advisory in nature, not managerial. Thus, the holding in Yeshiva would not prevail.

Silverman noted that "apart from basic academic decision-making, academic policy is largely set by administrative and supervisory personnel or committees that do not have majority representation from among faculty members."

Shortly after the NLRB decision was released, the college filed an appeal with the national board. Thus, while an election was held Dec. 8 and 9, the NLRB has sealed the ballots and won't count them unless it rules against the college on the appeal.

The Manhattan College decision joins that of a Washington State NLRB regional director in 1997. Considering the administration's Yeshiva claim, the director ruled that faculty at the University of Great Falls in Montana did not have managing authority and could hold a bargaining election. The faculty voted to be represented by the AFT and the Montana Federation of Teachers, which assisted in bringing the case.

Coincidentally, the same week the NLRB decision came down, Roman Catholic bishops took an action that some believe will strengthen the resolve of faculty at Catholic institutions to seek unionization. The bishops voted to implement a mandate from the Vatican that would clamp down on Catholic-related institutions, which have been able to exercise academic independence for decades. The mandate, called ex corde ecclesiae, would require colleges to get local bishop approval for the theologians they hire; hire only Catholics to serve as presidents; and try to bring the number of Catholic instructors to 50 percent in their faculty hiring.

Joe Flahey, treasurer of MACFAC and a professor of religious studies at Manhattan College, calls the mandate "tragic." There will be some colleges that will toe the line, and "they will lose their best faculty," he predicts. Other colleges, he says, "will cease calling themselves Catholic and will instead say they are colleges with a Catholic history."