Campus Notebook: National Labor Relations Board rules against university; Gonzaga hosting 'Me Too' activist

by James Dearie

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Editor's Note: Welcome to NCR's college roundup, where every Friday we bring you the latest news in Catholic college and university life. Do you have news you would like to share? Email James Dearie at jdearie@ncronline.org.


PITTSBURGH — The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Duquesne University must recognize and negotiate with a union representing adjunct faculty, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported March 1.

The Washington, D.C.-based panel that issued the ruling agreed with the findings of its regional office after adjunct faculty in the university's McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts voted to form a union in 2012.

Duquesne claims that as a religious institution, it should not be subject to the National Labor Relations Board's decisions. The board excluded the theology department from its mandates because of its religious mission but refuses to extend the exemption to the rest of the college.

The university says it is filing an appeal in federal court.


SPOKANE, Wash. — Gonzaga University will host activist Tarana Burke and journalist Ronan Farrow for its seventh event in its Presidential Speaker Series April 20, the university announced March 1.

Burke, senior director of programs at Girls for Gender Equality, was the first to use the phrase "Me Too" in 2006 in reference to her sexual assault. The phrase spawned a movement late last year when actress Alyssa Milano began encouraging women who had been harassed or assaulted to reply to her tweet with "#metoo." Burke was honored as a "Silence Breaker" in Time Magazine's 2017 Person of the Year issue.

Farrow is an investigative reporter who broke the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault and harassment story in the New Yorker last year.

Tickets for the event go on sale March 15.


SOUTH BEND, Ind. — University of Notre Dame women's basketball head coach Muffet McGraw was named USA Today's Coach of the Year, the paper revealed March 7.

After a string of injuries left Notre Dame with only seven active scholarship players, the team still managed to go 29-3, winning the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season title.

McGraw was hired as head coach in 1987. She has led the team to seven Final Four appearances, a national title in 2001, and four conference titles. The fifth-ranked Irish will learn their seed and first opponent in the tournament Sunday when brackets are announced.


WASHINGTON — Georgetown University awarded U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) with the Timothy S. Healy, S.J. Award Feb. 28.

The award, named for a former president of Georgetown and the New York Public Library who died in 1992, goes to "an alumnus of Georgetown who has rendered outstanding and exemplary community service or public service or professional service in support of humanitarian causes and advancements for the benefit of mankind," according to the university's website.

Previous winners of the award include former NBA All-Star Dikembe Mutombo and Bill Clinton.

[James Dearie is an NCR Bertelsen intern. Contact him at jdearie@ncronline.org.]

This story appears in the Campus Notebook feature series. View the full series.

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