College campuses have seen a lot of union activity over the last year or so.

Adjunct faculty in particular are organizing. In the Boston area, a regional organizing effort by the Service Employees International Union is trying to bring more adjunct instructors into the fold. A similar effort in Washington, D.C., has already been underway.

Despite successes, the unions have not been without setbacks. In a recent defeat, an effort to organize adjunct faculty at Bentley University failed by two votes.

But there has also been a string of successes.

Here are four campuses where unions have made inroads, plus two where the jury is still out: 

1. TUFTS UNIVERSITY
Union: Service Employees International Union
Targets: Adjuncts

(Source: flickr user Knar Bedian)
 

Last month, adjunct faculty at Tufts voted to form a union as part of a Boston-area effort by the Service Employees International Union to organize local adjuncts. After the vote, the school said it supported the adjuncts' right to unionize and would bargain in good faith. 

2. LESLEY UNIVERSITY
Union: Service Employees International Union
Targets: Adjuncts

(Source: flickr user osseous)
 

Adjunct instructors here voted to unionize this month, on the heels of the successful organization effort at Tufts. A union statement said the university relies on adjuncts across two campuses. The school had little to say after the vote except that it was complying with NLRB procedures. 

3. DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY
Union: United Steelworkers
Targets: Adjuncts

(Source: Wikipedia)
 

Here, adjunct faculty voted in September 2012 to organize, but the school appealed to the National Labor Relations Board. It said that as a religious institution, giving the NLRB jurisdiction over labor disputes at the school could violate the separation of church and state.

4. GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
Union: Service Employees International Union
Targets: Adjuncts

(Source: flickr user David Wilson)
 

In May, more than 70% of Georgetown's adjunct instructors who voted favored forming a union. That puts more than three-fourths of the adjunct workforce in D.C. in a union. It's part of a regional strategy: George Washington University adjuncts unionized in 2005 and American University adjuncts unionized in 2012.

STILL UP IN THE AIR

1. NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
Union: United Auto Workers
Targets: Grad students, research assistants

(Source: flickr user Jeffrey Bary)
 

Here, organizing efforts are ongoing. NYU has told organizers that it would stop trying to block an election on a union for teaching assistants if the union agreed to leave research assistants outside the union. The union called it a ploy. The ability of grad students to unionize at private universities is currently before the NLRB.

2. NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
Union: Service Employees International Union
Targets: Adjuncts

(Source: flickr user ksparrow11)
 

Here, organizing efforts are ongoing. The university has set up a website to discourage adjuncts from organizing. One report has the school hiring a law firm frequently used to fight union organizing efforts. 

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