Ruth DeFoster, an adjunct professor at a university called St. Catherine’s, in Minnesota, wrote to me today to share news of the anti-unionization campaign by her college administration, and the letter to the president she wrote in response. I am happy to be able to share it here. Ruth writes: “St. Kate’s is one of the 43 remaining women’s colleges left in the country. We are in the midst of attempting to unionize, and the university has responded with a falsehood-filled anti-union campaign.”
Ruth’s Bio: I am an adjunct professor of Communication Studies at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota. I hold a doctorate in Mass Communication from the University of Minnesota. I study media coverage of crime, terrorism, and mass shootings. My first book is coming out next month from Peter Lang. I teach courses on gender, feminist theory, race and intercultural communication.
Thank you for writing and sharing this amazing letter with us, Ruth! Your courage inspires.
Kudos to Ruth for her gutsy and honest response to St. Kate’s President. As one of the organizing leaders during Hamline University’s successful drive to form an adjunct faculty union (just across town from St. Kate’s), much of her experience is familiar to me. Before reading Ruth’s letter I had seen on the St. Kate’s website their anti-union rhetoric framed in “Minnesota Nice” language. And a neighbor who teaches as an adjunct at St. Kate’s shared with me the letter the President sent (by certified mail!) to every adjunct urging them to vote the union down. So, as current steward for Hamline University’s Adjunct Faculty Union, I wrote the following open letter to my peers at St. Kate’s. https://tothetune.wordpress.com/2017/06/21/open-letter-to-st-kates-adjunct-faculty/
thanks for sharing this! Keep up the pressure!