Election 2025 FAQs

    • Feb. 12: Ballots will be mailed to eligible faculty’s home address by SERB (State Employment Relations Board).

    • Feb. 18 – March 4: Two weeks election period.

      • NB: Please mail back your ballot to SERB as soon as you receive it (even if that is before 2/18), but make sure it is postmarked no later than 3/4.

    • March 17: SERB counts the ballots.

    • You receive the ballot in your mail (home address).

    • Return your ballot via mail.

    • Voting is confidential.

    • No names are on the ballots. Only SERB has access to the ballots.

    • All full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty* (all OU campuses).

    • All full-time non-tenure track instructional faculty*.

    (*) unless in HCOM or in one of the excluded departments in CSHP (see next answer).

    • All faculty in the Heritage College of Medicine

    • All faculty in the College of Health Sciences and Professions except:

      • Full-time faculty in the Departments of Social Work, Social Public Health, and Interdisciplinary Health Studies.

    • All part-time faculty.

    • All visiting faculty.

    • All instructors.

    • All faculty participating in an early retirement program.

    • All supervisors, confidential employees, and management level employees.

    • All ranks of presidents, provosts, deans.

    • All school-level directors, department chairs, administrators and heads of schools.

    • All faculty holding multiple appointments where one appointment is also in an excluded category.

    • All other employees.

    • UAOU petitioned to represent all full-time faculty at OU in March, 2024.

    • OU management countered with their own petition excluding CHSP and HCOM, saying they do not share a “community of interest” with the included faculty.

    • Despite 8 months of negotiation, OU management excludes HCOM and 7/10 departments in CHSP.

    • The excluded faculty are currently organizing into a separate unit as part of UAOU.

    • One union with separate units will give us the strength to advocate for all OU faculty.

    • Yes, faculty can choose whether or not to be dues-paying members of the union.

    • Regardless of membership status, however, everyone in the bargaining unit is represented by UAOU.

    • Hence, by joining UAOU as an active member, you can participate fully in the decision-making processes and keep the union strong.

    • Shared governance: Only with a union, faculty have a greater role in university decision-making.

    • A better Ohio University: Only with a union, we negotiate binding agreements on shared governance, academic freedom, and economic security.

    • A stronger commitment to our students: Only with a union, we can make OU’s educational mission our top priority. Faculty working conditions are student learning conditions!