This article was originally published in the March 2025 print edition.
Disclaimer: this article was originally written for ENG 136: Journalism Principles & Practices in the fall of 2024. The names of employees in this article have been withheld for safety/privacy purposes.
During the 2023-24 academic year, over 40% of the Smith community visited the Schacht Center for mental or physical care — double the amount seen in previous years. Yet, as more students seek the services of the Schacht Center, its small but dedicated team of nurses and therapists have expressed difficulty to meet this increasing demand. In ongoing contract negotiations, the Schacht Center union — recently having added its therapists to its ranks — is asking that the college ensure both students and staff receive the extra support they need.
New waves of union organizing have hit the Smith campus in the last year, first with student dining workers, followed by Residence Life student workers, library staff and pre-school teachers at Smith’s Fort Hill Early Childhood Education Center. Over the summer, therapists at the Schacht Center filed for union recognition alongside the registered nurses (RNs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) which were already unionized.
Similar to other unionization pursuits at the college, the administration refused to voluntarily recognize the union, as reported by the Massachusetts Nurses Association in June (MNA). Following a protracted process of seeking recognition from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), therapists at the Schacht Center are now unionized under the MNA.
On Nov. 20, the MNA and the Western Mass Area Labor Federation (WMALF) hosted a panel in the Campus Center for students to learn about the Schacht Center’s current contract negotiations. In attendance were students with the ResLife union, the dining workers union, faculty, members of the Smith Young Communist League, a representative from the office of Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa (D) and representatives from the full-time dining hall union (SEIU Local 211) and UFCW Local 1459.
“This is the longest contract negotiation we’ve been in,” said an NP on the panel. The union has gone over half a year without a new contract. The panelists said that Smith has rejected all of the union’s major proposals, such as providing wage increases consistent with Massachusetts cost-of-living inflation, overtime pay and paid on-call time for therapists, paid time off that is consistent with other college staff, paid interns, higher staffing or updated technology.
The administration countered only with a wage increase of “less than half of a percent,” which amounts to “a bonus of about $200 a year.”
“My wage is about 25-50% less than I would make in the community,” one psychiatric nurse said, who has been working in their field for over 25 years. “I chose to come to Smith because I thought I would be working in an environment that shared my values of providing the highest quality care. The negotiations have led me to believe that our work at the Schacht Center is not valued by the administration.”
Another panelist pointed out that Smith’s finances are in great condition as of 2023 — the college made $9 million in profit last year, on top of its $2.5 billion endowment and $3.6 billion in assets. Despite such apparent abundance in resources, the Schacht Center has faced cuts in therapist and RN positions, hour cuts from 40 to 35 per week and stagnant wages — all within the context of soaring rates of mental health crises among young people and the election of a president who has vowed to gut reproductive rights and gender-affirming healthcare nationwide. With students coming to Smith from all over the country and the world, the role of the Schacht Center is now more vital than ever.
Instead, the panelist said the college has centered its fiscal priorities around capital projects such as the Kathleen McCartney building and the recently renovated Neilson Library. Meanwhile, the Schacht Center is forced to grapple with the loss of one of the two full-time RNs, the loss of one part-time therapist and an increase in unpaid interns who are expected to do the same amount of work as full-time therapists.
Nursing is a practice “historically undervalued as ‘women’s work,’” they continued. They added that one of the contract proposals the college has rejected is, ironically, to provide stipends for Schacht Center workers to pursue higher levels of education or attend conferences where they may gain access to new and improved medical knowledge.
Students at the panel expressed concerns that the issues they have faced in accessing healthcare on campus — long waitlists, rescheduling conflicts and less personalized care — will only be exacerbated with the actions of the new Trump administration. The number of students being checked into the hospital or requesting medical withdrawals is already on the rise, a trend which is expected to continue. The RNs, NPs and therapists at the panel expressed a dread that they might have to turn students away or provide insufficient care due to the strain on staff and resources.
According to a panelist, at their bargaining session on Nov. 8, the Dean of Students Julie Ohotnicky said that Schacht Center workers were “manipulating the moment” when they expressed their concerns about not being able to meet the needs of students following the certification of the election results without the allocation of more resources from the college.
“Smith College is committed to fostering positive work environments for all employees,” said the Dean’s office in response to a request for comment. “We are abiding by the NLRB protocol and out of respect for the formal process associated with collective bargaining, we do not have further comment at this time.”
However, the union is not backing down on its demands for adequate raises and better working conditions. Student workers, full-time staff and members of the WMALF in attendance at the panel expressed feelings of solidarity with the Schacht Center workers on behalf of their unions — many of whom have faced similar snubs and shaming in their own contract negotiations with the college.
Despite their frustrations with the college administration, a nurse at the Schacht Center emphasized, “I love my job, love the Smith students, and just want everyone to thrive.”
The MNA created a petition for Smith community members to express their support for the Schacht Center’s contract negotiations, which they said they would deliver to the HR department sometime this semester. The Sophian has yet to receive a response from the MNA with a status update of the petition.
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