Lincoln University administrators and some curators met Thursday afternoon with some LU faculty members and representatives of Missouri's National Education Association - the group LU faculty members have asked to represent them in collective bargaining with the school.
The meeting was closed to the press and public, and neither side issued a news release afterward.
However, the NEA plans to issue a release today - and an LU faculty member provided the News Tribune with a pre-release copy late Thursday.
It says faculty representatives and university administrators discussed the process for "moving toward recognition of the collective bargaining unit" and quoted Abdoulaye Bah, an LU professor who's been acting as a spokesman for the Lincoln University MNEA (LUMNEA): "We are encouraged that the administration is in the process of working toward recognition of the LUMNEA as a bargaining representative."
LU President Kevin Rome told a reporter before the meeting with NEA: "It's just an introductory meeting."
His comments came after LU's Curators approved a two-page policy on collective bargaining.
Kent Brown, Lincoln's attorney, told the board Missouri teachers "at the elementary, secondary and higher education level are not governed by any other statutes or policies, other than the right to collectively bargain as recognized by the Missouri Supreme Court in 2007 and, I believe, by one or two Supreme Court decisions following that."
Since about 60 percent of LU's faculty already have asked the NEA to represent them in talks with LU administrators, Brown said, "The first step in that process is to put together some sort of policy that governs that process and gives guidance to the two negotiating teams."
Today's NEA release noted: "LUMNEA will review that policy and make recommendations for change.
"LUMNEA will also work with the administration to define the collective bargaining unit."
Although the proposed policy was prompted by the NEA request, the policy doesn't name that organization, and its procedures presumably could apply to other groups of Lincoln employees who might pursue a similar bargaining agreement.
Brown noted LU's president would appoint the "team negotiating on behalf of the University in such number as he/she sees fit, but (it) shall not include any Curator, Student nor the President."
Brown said supervisors generally aren't included in those negotiating teams either.
In general, the policy envisions after a first contract is negotiated in any year "that no collective bargaining agreement is in force for any recognized campus bargaining unit," the LU president is tasked with providing details for a meeting on or after Feb. 1.
At least one week before that meeting, the policy says, the bargaining unit(s) representatives "shall present to the University's team, through the President's office, a written proposal for consideration and bargaining."
The policy requires the bargaining process to finish by the end of April of that same year.
The policy also includes a procedure to be followed, if there's an impasse in the bargaining.
Brown noted negotiators in the private sector often use the Federal Mediation Services when there are impasses, "but we're a state agency, so we stay within the state law and state resources."
The policy also outlines how a contract agreement is reduced to writing then submitted to the bargaining unit members and, if approved there, to the Curators for approval.
In the NEA release, Bah said, "We are confident that representation in collective bargaining with the MNEA will result in better working conditions for faculty and better learning conditions for students at Lincoln University."
During Faculty Senate Chair Bryan Salmons' report to the curators about the last two Senate meetings - including the Sept. 29 session where faculty voted "no confidence" in Provost Said Sewell's work - Curators President Marvin Teer wondered if faculty are paying enough attention to students' needs.
Without getting into specifics, Teer said students have told him they "have felt less than supported or less than encouraged" by LU faculty.
"One of the things that I think is important for us, as a small institution, is to always keep at the focus of all of our priorities and all of our agendas the health and welfare of our students," Teer told Salmons. "(Students) look to you, their faculty, their teachers, as their inspiration, as their guides, as those folks who are going to teach them what's important about this next step of their lives."
Salmons, who heads LU's English, Foreign Language and Philosophy department, agreed, telling Teer: "I frequently have that experience as a teacher."