The Path Forward

Dear LMU Community,

In response to Board Chair Paul Viviano’s announcement regarding LMU invoking a religious exemption from the National Labor Relations Board, and following guidance from the Board of Trustees earlier today, I am writing about our path forward together. If you haven’t already, please read his message for the decision’s context, rationale, and scope.

As your president, my commitment is to bring our community together in collaboration, grounded in respect and dignity for the essential contributions of our non-tenure-track and visiting faculty, and for all those who serve our students. It takes all of us to make the LMU experience possible. As a lifelong teacher and researcher, I know firsthand that faculty are the heartbeat of any university, and at LMU, they set the steady rhythm of our academic life. I recognize the concerns that shaped recent organizing efforts, and I pledge that we will address them with decisive action, urgency, candor, and care.  

We will work with our NTT and visiting faculty to meet their needs while containing cost impacts for our students and their families. I am directing the university administration to implement or accelerate the following:

Increase Pay
We know pay matters now, not later. Effective immediately, we are restarting market and merit raises for full-time NTT faculty in BCLA, CFA, and SFTV. We’re also implementing merit increases and market adjustments for eligible term faculty, and merit increases for eligible faculty. This means more money in their paychecks this year—not just promises about the future. And our recent track record is promising, with LMU investing $7.7M in market adjustments for all employees (above merit increases) in the last two years.

Provide Stability and Opportunity
Our NTT faculty deserve more certainty in their professional lives. We will move to longer-term contracts and clearer course planning so they can count on predictable work and focus on serving our students more effectively.

• Multiyear Forecasting and Longer-Term Contracts: Starting next year, we will adopt multiyear course forecasting and better curricular mapping so that we can offer longer-term contracts, one-year agreements for part-time faculty, and three-year agreements for term faculty, in alignment with departmental needs. 
• More Full-Time Positions: Also starting next academic year, we will open more full-time faculty positions over the next three years—creating potential new paths for part-time faculty.

Strengthen Shared Governance 
With the Faculty Senate, we will advance academic‑freedom protections, clarify promotion pathways and titles, establish consistent review timelines (including for part‑time faculty), implement a shared workload model, and increase regular touchpoints among faculty leaders and university leadership.

Support Professional Growth 
We will improve internal outreach on openings, provide clear onboarding for reviews and promotion, reserve Delphi Award funds for part‑time faculty, designate annual professional‑development funds for full‑time term faculty, and host new‑faculty orientations each semester with year‑round workshops. 

These commitments are first steps. We will share our progress with the community to ensure accountability. HR and the Provost’s Office will also reach out directly to departments and faculty groups shortly to review what’s changing now, what’s next, and to share points of contact and timing.

Campus Conversations
On September 16, I will join interim EVP and Provost Weaver’s scheduled Community Conversations to listen, share the path forward, and take your questions alongside a panel of university leaders. Additional sessions will follow this fall. Details and sign‑ups will be posted on The Path Forward Website. I hope you will join me, as your perspectives will shape our work. Within the context of our discussions, I’m asking the provost to work with the Faculty Senate, NTT and Visiting Faculty, and our colleagues to bring their comprehensive perspectives directly to me and to our academic leadership. We will keep the community apprised of our progress and invite feedback on the website.

I want to reiterate Chair Viviano’s comments about the limited nature of the university’s religious‑exemption assertion: this applies only to NLRA/NLRB‑jurisdiction and does not change LMU’s commitments to Title VI, Title VII, Title IX, civil‑rights protections, healthcare requirements, or non‑discrimination. Please visit our FAQs for more information. 

We will move forward together—directly, respectfully, and always with students at the center of every decision. Thank you for your scholarship, mentorship, service, and the care you bring to LMU each day. I am honored to do this work alongside you.

With gratitude,
Thomas Poon, Ph.D.
President and Professor of Chemistry