AAU joined ACE, CUPA-HR, and three other higher education organizations to submit comments to the National Labor Relations Board about its proposed rule to establish that students at private colleges and universities who perform any services for compensation – including, but not limited to, teaching or research – in connection with their studies are not “employees” under the National Labor Relations Act and thus do not have the right to collectively bargain under the auspices of the NLRA.
In the comment letter, the associations thank the NLRB for its interest in applying its rulemaking authority to resolve recurring changes, based on case-by-case adjudication, to the Board’s position on student collective bargaining. The letter emphasizes that the proposed rule will “promote consistency and predictability for the higher education landscape.” The comments also support the rationale expressed in the proposed rule that students have a primarily academic (not economic) relationship with their educational institutions and that collective bargaining would have a detrimental effect on the relationship between students and their schools and encroach on universities’ control over academic matters.