Duquesne, don’t appeal NLRB decision
As a graduate of the Duquesne University School of Law, I am ashamed of my alma mater for failing to recognize and collectively bargain with adjunct faculty at the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts (“Duquesne Must Now Recognize Adjunct Faculty Union,” April 12).
The law school tells prospective students that they “will be trained to a high degree of professional skill with a special sensitivity to ethical and moral concerns.” Duquesne had the opportunity to stop a five-year legal battle and show respect for the invaluable contributions of adjunct faculty members. They failed.
Duquesne is making the wrong legal decision to appeal the National Labor Relations Board ruling, and they are making the wrong ethical and moral decision. The NLRB has had jurisdiction over Duquesne since 1982, and should continue to exercise its jurisdiction. This lengthy legal fight has nothing to do with being a religious institution. It is an excuse for wanting to continue to pay adjuncts poverty wages.
Duquesne is risking its mission by wasting tuition and donation dollars on legal fees. As the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a 1986 pastoral letter, “No one may deny the right to organize without attacking human dignity itself.” Duquesne should drop its challenge and invest in workers and, by extension, students.
I make increasing yearly donations to my undergraduate institution, Dickinson College. I have never made a donation to Duquesne. Unless something changes, that will continue. I refuse to allow my money to be used to break a union. LINDSEY M. WILLIAMS
West View school thing, and Ambassador Rooney did the right thing and asked for the courtesy call (I was the acting ambassador at the time). Once I learned he was coming, I sent out a message to everyone in the embassy, saying that if they were Steelers fans, they should pop into my office to say hello. About a dozen did, and even posed for a group picture with him. Dan Rooney was such a good sport about it — and much more. This was clearly something that happened to him with some frequency, and he was prepared. He had a supply of Terrible Towels, which he autographed, and other Steelers trinkets, which he pressed into the delighted fans’ hands.
He couldn’t have been a nicer guy. Maybe I happened to catch him on two days in which he was being extraordinarily friendly and kind, but I really doubt that. DAVID BALLARD
Reston, Va.
I read, with the unlikely combination of amusement and alarm, the April 15 letter by Erin Cordell, “Let’s Strive for Empathy Toward Trump Voters.” She declares that her fellow anti-Trumpers should create a dialogue with Trump voters instead of just condemning them out-of-hand.
All well-intentioned and good, but then Ms. Cordell goes on to clearly show that she has naively bought into the left’s depiction of Trump voters as the equivalent of Kentucky hillbillies — uneducated folk, albeit sincere and hard-working.
I would opine that Ms. Cordell is likely living in that bubbleworld of liberal bias. Many of the Trump supporters my family and I know are highly educated and well-informed. We voted for policy and effectiveness, not for personality.
If nothing else, the condescending attitude of Ms. Cordell toward half the nation’s voters helps to explain the unexpected and overwhelming electoral victory of Donald J. Trump. The liberals-in-the-bubble refuse to acknowledge and accept the fact that much of the nation’s electorate, from all points on the education spectrum, simply do not agree with them. ED KNIGHT
Kennedy