On Monday, May 13, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) officer made the recommendation to the NLRB Regional Officer to overrule an objection filed by Elon University against the Service Employees International Union, Workers United Southern Region (SEIU)-backed push for non-tenure-track faculty members to unionize at Elon. The university and SEIU will have one week to respond to the recommendation. 

Elon filed an objection following the vote for the union on March 12 where eligible faculty voted in favor of the union. Of the 283 eligible voters, 200 votes were cast with 112 members voting in favor of the union.

In a message regarding the objection when it was filed, Provost Steven House asked the NLRB to either "dismiss the SEIU petition to represent the university’s faculty, or to conduct a new election." House also said in the announcement that the SEIU "does not share Elon’s mission and values."

In an email to the university in which House admonished the union, House said some members of the Elon community had felt overwhelmed by the SEIU.

"Some faculty members reported feeling stalked and unsafe when organizers appeared repeatedly and sometimes refused to leave," House wrote in his email. "Some faculty members were upset that their Elon colleagues had shared their home addresses and personal contact information with the SEIU without their permission."

In an email sent on May 15 by Cathrine Bush, an assistant professor of biology, on behalf of the organizing committee for the Elon Faculty Union, the university was called on to honor Elon’s stated mission to “encourage freedom of thought and liberty of conscience."