11th Bargaining Update

Dear Campus Community,

Today we presented our compensation proposal, as well as proposals related to parking, support for underrepresented students, and student loan forgiveness. We have now presented all of our proposals to the administration, in addition to closing out the year with a number of tentative agreements. Throughout this process, input from our membership has been crucial to our work, and we ask that you stay engaged in the process as we move forward.

This is an important milestone, but we still have plenty of work to do. We look forward to getting counters from the administration, and we will be continuing bargaining over the summer.

Best,

The Union Bargaining Team (Brian Buckley, Patricia Cameron-Loyd, Deirdre Frontczak, Seiko Fuji, Maggie Levantovskaya, Natalie Linnell)

SCU Adjuncts and Lecturers Union http://www.scufacultyunited.org
Join your union https://www.scufacultyunited.org/join-your-union

10th Bargaining Update

Dear Campus Community,

Today we had our tenth bargaining session with the administration. Today we proposed improved transparency around service and professional development, as well as improved access to more secure NTT jobs for current NTT faculty. We are working toward getting all proposals, including compensation, on the table in the next few bargaining sessions. Negotiations tend to speed up after everything is on the table.  

Best,

The Union Bargaining Team

(Brian Buckley, Patricia Cameron-Loyd, Deirdre Frontczak, Seiko Fuji, Maggie Levantovskaya, Natalie Linnell)


SCU Adjuncts and Lecturers Union http://www.scufacultyunited.org
Join your union https://www.scufacultyunited.org/join-your-union

9th Bargaining Update

Dear Campus Community,

Today we had our ninth bargaining session with the administration. We're continuing to discuss some of our highest-priority items. Today we proposed improvements to our housing benefits. We are working toward getting all proposals on the table in the next few bargaining sessions. Negotiations tend to speed up after everything is on the table.

We look forward to seeing our NTT colleagues at the second SALU Town Hall, coming up this Friday, May 26, at 9 am in Nobili Hall (or on Zoom). We will have bagels and juice for those who join us in person. If you need the zoom link, email SALUatscu@gmail.com to request it. 

The best way to show support for the bargaining team is  to be sure you are signed up as a union member. Please complete this form to confirm. No dues will be deducted until after a contract is ratified. https://memberlink.seiu1021.org/SEIU1021MemberApplicationStep1.aspx

Best,

The Union Bargaining Team (Brian Buckley, Patricia Cameron-Loyd, Deirdre Frontczak, Seiko Fuji, Maggie Levantovskaya, Natalie Linnell)

SCU Adjuncts and Lecturers Union http://www.scufacultyunited.org

Join your union https://www.scufacultyunited.org/join-your-union

8th Bargaining Update

Dear Campus Community,

Today we had a productive eighth bargaining session with the administration. We've begun discussing some of our highest-priority items. Today we proposed an article including improvements to: job security, promotion, and titles.

Over the last few weeks, we've gathered your input, the work of various lecturer committees, and leveraged the heterogeneity of experience among the bargaining team to carefully craft a proposal that we believe represents your concerns. We had a lively and wide-ranging discussion of our proposal with the administration. Our next bargaining session will be May 23.

On Friday, May 12, there will be two opportunities to discuss the progress of bargaining with the Contract Action Team on zoom. Join us either at 9 am or at 1 pm at this link: https://scu.zoom.us/j/91436178004?pwd=Z0MwUlU2YU5XbGYzaE5XcWtXVUI4Zz09 Meeting ID: 914 3617 8004 Password: 231131

Also, please save the date for our second SALU Town Hall, coming up on Friday, May 26, at 9 am in Nobili Hall (or on zoom). We will have bagels and juice for those who join us in person.

Best,

The Union Bargaining Team (Brian Buckley, Patricia Cameron-Loyd, Deirdre Frontczak, Seiko Fuji, Maggie Levantovskaya, Natalie Linnell)

SCU Adjuncts and Lecturers Union http://www.scufacultyunited.org

7th Bargaining Update

Dear Campus Community,

We had a productive seventh bargaining session with the administration. As we've discussed,
topics of bargaining generally move from less to more controversial and complex; today we
addressed the first of these more time-intensive issues.

With your input, over the last several weeks we have mapped out a procedure for evaluation of teaching, which we proposed
to the administration today. We had a detailed discussion with the administration about the value of consistency of evaluation across the university. We've also scheduled our next two bargaining sessions, which will be May 9 and 23.

It was great to get to talk to so many of you at the town hall last Friday.  We will have
another town hall the Friday of week 8.

Best,

The Union Bargaining Team

(Brian Buckley, Patricia Cameron-Loyd, Deirdre Frontczak, Seiko Fuji, Maggie Levantovskaya, Natalie Linnell)

Share input or feedback with the bargaining team here.

6th Bargaining Update 

Dear Campus Community,

We had a productive sixth bargaining session with the administration. We have a tentative agreement on a Health and Safety article, 
which protects the rights of faculty to require masks in their classrooms and enshrines the right to teach up to 30% of each class online
 for the duration of the contract. We now have the ability to better protect the immunocompromised members of our community; ourselves, 
our families, and our students.
  
We are close to a tentative agreement on faculty development grants, and we had discussion and made progress on protecting our members' 
access to health benefits.

Best,
The Union Bargaining Team
(Brian Buckley, Patricia Cameron-Loyd, Deirdre Frontczak, Seiko Fuji, Maggie Levantovskaya, Natalie Linnell)

5th Bargaining Update 

Dear Campus Community,

We've completed our fifth bargaining session with the Administration.  While we haven't reached any new tentative agreements, we did make progress, and bargaining continues to be collegial. 

We are nearing tentative agreement on Grievance and Arbitration, which is a component of any union contract.  

We also made two new proposals, regarding course cancellation, and benefits including health and retirement benefits.

Best,
The Union Bargaining Team 
(Brian Buckley, Patricia Cameron-Loyd, Deirdre Frontczak, Seiko Fuji, Maggie Levantovskaya, Natalie Linnell)

4th Bargaining Update 

Dear Campus Community,

We've completed our fourth bargaining session with the Administration.  Bargaining has continued to be collaborative and respectful.  We've reached tentative agreement (meaning that barring extreme circumstances, these issues have been decided) on three additional articles:  Non-discrimination, the labor-management committee, and management rights. The tentative management rights article includes effects bargaining, an important notion related to the understanding that any changes by the administration that have a noticeable effect on employees or working conditions need to be brought to the negotiating table going forward. 

In this session, we made proposals related to: obtaining equity data, office space and support, and role in committee service.  We also had fruitful discussion of several of our other in-progress topics.

Best,
The Union Bargaining Team (Brian Buckley, Patricia Cameron-Loyd, Deirdre Frontczak, Seiko Fuji, Maggie Levantovskaya, Natalie Linnell)

3rd Bargaining Update 

Dear Campus Community,

We've completed our third bargaining session with the Administration.  We've made significant progress on boilerplate issues proposed in the last two sessions.  We've reached tentative agreement (meaning that barring extreme circumstances, these issues have been decided) on:  union recognition, union security, union rights, and union representation at new employee orientation.  We made progress on: non-discrimination, the labor-management committee, grievance and arbitration, and employer rights.  

Bargaining has started on a positive note.  The meetings have been respectful, with all voices heard.  We are getting through issues quickly that, while boilerplate, can sometimes take months to settle.  In this session, we made proposals related to: faculty development, tuition remission, leaves of absence, and access to tenure-track positions.  

We will be asking members of the bargaining unit for feedback on health benefits and performance evaluation over the next couple of weeks. Please look for emails from the contract action team.


Best,

The SCU Adjunct & Lecturer Union Bargaining Team 
(Brian Buckley, Patricia Cameron-Loyd, Deirdre Frontczak, Seiko Fuji, Maggie Levantovskaya, Natalie Linnell)

2nd Bargaining Update

The bargaining team had a productive second bargaining meeting with the administration on Thursday, February 9. 

The administration presented their proposed edits to the proposals we brought forth in the last bargaining meeting, and the union presented written proposals to deal with the following issues:

1.       Academic Freedom

2.       Workplace Health and Safety 

Our next bargaining session is scheduled for February 23.

At the top of week #6 of winter quarter we will be holding meetings to invite more input from members to inform possible proposals related to Faculty Development, Benefits for QALs, and Racial Justice and Equity.  In week #7 there will be four Union update meetings hosted by the CAT. As we mentioned in our first all-faculty update after our first meeting, first contract negotiations typically progress from non-economic to economic items, and we expect that to be the case here.

Bargaining unit members, keep an eye out for info on the details of these Zoom meetings  in a separate email.

Best,

The union bargaining team:  Brian Buckley, Patricia Cameron-Loyd, Deirdre Frontczak, Seiko Horibe, Maggie Levantovskaya, Natalie Linnell

Union contract bargaining has begun!

The bargaining team had a productive first bargaining meeting with the administration on Thursday, January 26. We began bargaining by both sides agreeing to maintain a collegial and collaborative tone. So the administration knows what to expect throughout the process, the union identified top priorities based on our bargaining surveys of our members as:

  • fair and predictable raises

  • improved job security

  • pathways to promotion

  • strengthening our commitment to racial equity

 

In bargaining a first contract, we are starting from scratch. Many first union contracts in higher education may have 20-40 separate articles. The union presented written proposals to deal with the boilerplate issues of labor-management relations and contract administration:

1.       Recognition of the Union

2.       Union Security

3.       Union Rights

4.       Non-Discrimination

5.       Labor-Management Committee

6.       New Employee Orientation in the union

7.       Grievance & Arbitration

8.       Discipline & Discharge for just cause

9.       Unemployment Insurance

 

We scheduled more bargaining sessions for February 9 and 23.

In the coming weeks we will be holding meetings to invite more input from members to inform possible proposals related to topics like health and safety, academic freedom, faculty development funds, and access to health benefits. It’s important that we hear from all ranks of lecturers across the School of Engineering, School of Business, School of Education and Counseling Psychology, and College of Arts and Sciences, so that we can accurately represent your needs and priorities during this process, and understand what problems we should seek to solve through negotiations. First contract negotiations typically progress from non-economic to economic items, and we expect that to be the case here.

Best,

The union bargaining team:  Brian Buckley, Patricia Cameron-Loyd, Deirdre Frontczak, Seiko Horibe, Maggie Levantovskaya, Natalie Linnell

We Won Our Union! And the World Is Taking Notice!

After a Five-Year Campaign, Adjuncts Faculty and Lecturers at Santa Clara University Win Their Union and Vote SEIU 1021 as Bargaining Representative

Union-Yes Votes Win in a Landslide (72.5%) in the National Labor Relations Board-Overseen Election

 

(Santa Clara, CA) After five years of union organizing, adjunct faculty and lecturers at Silicon Valley's Santa Clara University voted on Tuesday, June 21, 2022 to be represented by SEIU 1021 and to form a union. These non-tenure-track faculty members teach the majority of the university's courses, but many are required to re-apply to teach as often as every year, and struggle with precarious employment. Rising costs of living in the region have even pushed some lecturers into poverty and homelessness. In the face of these working conditions, the Adjunct Faculty and Lecturer Organizing Committee sought to form a union to make their work more sustainable.

This election win takes place in a period of renewed union organizing, alongside local victories like two new unionized Starbucks stores in Santa Cruz, and national wins like Baltimore’s Apple store, Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse, and the agreement under which Microsoft has committed to remain neutral when employees express interest in joining a union.

As Sojourners wrote:

After five years of organizing, the adjunct and lecturer faculty at Santa Clara University voted to form a union on June 21.

“A lot of the things that we’re asking for are driven by the Jesuit values of the university,” Andy Wolfe, who has been an adjunct lecturer at Santa Clara University for nine years, told Sojourners. “The Jesuits have a commitment to workers’ rights, to the dignity of work, to having employees have a voice, and we weren’t seeing it.”

The effort to form a union was made more difficult by political and legal factors: during the Donald Trump administration, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that it did not have jurisdiction over faculty members at religious colleges and universities, in the Bethany College decision. This ruling meant that the usual path for forming a union, in which pro-union organizers call for an election that will be overseen by the NLRB, was not possible. Nevertheless, the adjuncts and lecturers continued their fight, including trying to negotiate a free and fair election directly with SCU's administration, who had hired law firm Littler Mendelson. This firm has advised SCU, Apple, and Amazon in their efforts to “lawfully avoid unions.” This negotiation broke down, and still the fight continued.

The faculty members continued to build support for the union amongst their colleagues and in the community, earning public support from elected officials and community leaders including television host and former Frank Sinatra Artist-in-Residence of Santa Clara University W. Kamau Bell, Cindy Chavez, Santa Clara City Supervisor, District 2, Jean Cohen, Executive Director of the South Bay Labor Council, Susan Ellenberg, Santa Clara County Supervisor, 4th District, Maya Esparza, San Jose City Councilmember, District 7, Lisa M. Gillmor, City of Santa Clara Mayor,  Dolores Huerta, Ash Kalra, Assemblyman of the 27th District, Alex Lee, California State Assemblymember, 25th District, Reverend Jethro Moore II, President of the San Jose Silicon Valley N.A.A.C.P., California Governor Gavin Newsom, actor and activist Martin Sheen, and Kathy Watanabe, Santa Clara City Councilmember. They also built support from SCU students and tenured faculty. Over that time, the political environment shifted somewhat, with President Biden’s election and oversight of the NLRB, including a new General Counsel to replace the previous General Counsel, whom Biden terminated on his first day in office. In the end, the university did not challenge the NLRB election process by claiming a religious exemption.

In the NLRB election on Tuesday, June 21, the faculty voted overwhelmingly 245 to 93 to form a union, with 338 total ballots submitted and counted of a total eligible voting population of 544. The organizing committee said in a statement: "SCU adjunct faculty and lecturers have voted by a landslide (72.5%) in favor of a union! Many thanks to all of you who participated in the vote, who asked questions, came to meetings, talked to colleagues, came to rallies and teach-ins, posted flyers, signed cards, and wore t-shirts and pins. We are in this together and now we will have a voice at the table with the administration!"

Andy Wolfe, a lecturer at SCU and a member of the Organizing Committee, said, "It's a big win for all the faculty at Santa Clara. We've been working towards this day for years, and we're not surprised by this outcome. We've been talking to our supporters and hearing their enthusiasm, and when it came time to vote, they showed up! We really feel that this result is representative of what the faculty wants, and we hope the administration takes this vote as a signal of what the faculty expects from them."

 "We're looking forward to working cooperatively with the administration for a new contract. We're going to go talk to our members and survey them to set our priorities together and elect a team to represent us at the table."

Brandon Dawkins, SEIU Local 1021's Vice President of Organizing, said, "This win is a great testament to the work we do as a union. It was a very long campaign, and we encouraged them to stay in the fight, with years of talking to folks and organizing, because it's our job as the labor movement to bring all workers up! If we're not engaged in bringing all workers up, our movement will die. We have to fight for every worker to get the things they need, like a living wage, healthcare, and a voice in the way their employer operates. As workers, we're the engines that make our organizations run, and we're proud to help bring these adjuncts and lecturers into our movement."

The newly won union chapter will next survey their members to understand their needs, and elect a team of representatives to negotiate a contract with Santa Clara University. In a statement emailed to faculty, SCU administration said, “Under the rules we agreed to, the University will recognize the union and begin the collective bargaining process with the SEIU to achieve a mutually agreeable contract.”

AFLOC member Maggie Levantovskaya appeared on the Working People podcast to talk about the struggle for a union, as well: https://therealnews.com/the-long-uphill-battle-to-unionize-workers-at-religious-institutions.

Background: 

- “poverty”: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/28/adjunct-professors-homeless-sex-work-academia-povert
- “homelessness”: https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/homeless-professor-who-lives-her-car
- Bethany decision: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/06/11/no-nlrb-jurisdiction-religious-colleges
- Santa Cruz Starbucks: https://sf.eater.com/2022/5/12/23068814/starbucks-union-california-santa-cruz-stores
- Baltimore’s Apple store: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/18/apple-union-vote/
- Amazon warehouse: https://www.thecity.nyc/2022/4/1/23006509/amazon-warehouse-workers-union-win-staten-island
- Microsoft neutrality: https://news.microsoft.com/2022/06/13/cwa-microsoft-announce-labor-neutrality-agreement/
- “lawfully avoid unions”: https://www.littler.com/practice-areas/labor-management-relations

 

The SCU Adjunct Faculty and Lecturer Organizing Committee (AFLOC) has worked with SEIU Local 1021 since 2017 to organize a union at Santa Clara University.

We filed!

The rising tide of unionization comes to higher education in Silicon Valley, hoping to help fix the “gig-ification” of being a college professor.

On Friday, April 22, 2022, adjunct faculty members and lecturers at Santa Clara University (SCU) filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), requesting a formal election process to found a union at SCU. The adjuncts and lecturers have been organizing the union since 2017.

“The time is now,” said engineering lecturer Andrew Wolfe, “Given the urgent need for adjuncts and lecturers at SCU to have a say in the decisions that affect us in our work. We’re hired on a per-class basis, and have to re-apply to teach as often as every year. This makes it hard for some of us to live in the Bay Area, and takes time and energy away from our ability to instruct our students.  We’ve seen and been inspired by the thrilling success of others organizing unions across the nation, and are excited to make a real, positive difference here at SCU with our union.”

The organizing efforts have met significant resistance from SCU administrators, including multiple presidents over the years, but many similar small religious schools have seen successful union organizing drives recently, including Fordham University in New York and Loyola Chicago in Illinois. Throughout the process, SCU administration has “agreed we will not seek a religious exemption” to the unionization effort, and previous university President Fr. Kevin O’Brien stated an explicit preference for following the NLRB process the adjuncts have begun by filing for an NLRB union election.

Maggie Levantovskaya, a lecturer in the English Department, said, “Our working conditions are the students’ learning conditions, and both are in desperate need of improvement. Our union will give the precariously employed adjuncts and lecturers at SCU a voice and help us hold this institution up to its own ideals.”

The Adjunct Faculty and Lecturer Organizing Committee (AFLOC) have worked since 2017 to organize a union to address issues including the corporatization of higher education with so-called “just-in-time” labor practices that created a new class of contingently employed college professors with multiple “gigs”, campus safety, bringing worker justice to the school’s social justice mission, and wages, job security, and working conditions for the non-tenure-track faculty who teach the majority of the university’s courses. The region’s skyrocketing costs of living have pushed some professors into poverty and homelessness.

“We need this union,” says Levantovskaya, “And we have needed it for years. Despite the university’s stated commitment to social justice, we’ve seen huge challenges in our workplace. College instructors are workers and all workers need unions.”

Media Contact: Chris Flink, chris.flink at seiu1021.org.

Since 2017 we have united SCU non-tenure track faculty in an effort to formally unionize. With our union we can utilize our collective power to improve our working conditions at Santa Clara University in a manner that is legal, democratic, and effective. We deserve greater transparency, less uncertainty, and adequate compensation for all we do for the university, its students, and our community.

 By joining forces and forming our union, we will have an effective means to negotiate wages, benefits, and working conditions with the university, giving SCU Adjuncts and Lecturers not just a voice, but a legitimate seat at the table. Our hope is to partner with other SCU community groups once we win our union to create the best possible working environment for all SCU faculty, and thus create the best learning environment for our students.

Progress towards a union election was made this past summer when Father O’Brien agreed to an election administered by a third party due to National Labor Relations Board limitations; nonetheless, the SCU administration has repeatedly and clearly stated that they will oppose unionization. However, we will continue to organize and work toward our union regardless of SCU’s resistance.  

Currently, despite the administration's anti-union stance, we are fighting for a free and fair election without undue influence or interference, so that our colleagues can safely vote, especially given the on-going pandemic, without fear of reprisal or recrimination.

Ultimately, the SCU Adjunct Faculty & Lecturer Union wishes to help our beloved institution live up to its Jesuit values that deeply considers Cura Personalis. As such we ask that SCU live up to its social justice mission by embracing worker justice and recognize our union.

If you have questions then please visit our FAQs page.

Have other questions or concerns? Then contact AFLOC (Adjunct Faculty & Lecturer Organizing Committee) at scuAFLOC@gmail.com.

Check out our May Day teach-in!

SCU Is Part of the Rising Tide of Union Organizing

As we move into 2022, newly empowered by the rising tide of labor organizing and union actions across the country, the Adjunct Faculty & Lecturer Organizing Committee (AFLOC) is planning more actions to demand that SCU allow its adjunct faculty and lecturers to decide for ourselves if we would like to unionize. We need and deserve a free and fair election. We think 2022 will be a good year. Please join us! 

UC Lecturers Obtain Raises and Family Leave Thanks to Their Unionization

6,500 UC lecturers called off a planned 2-day strike after their union negotiated salary increases of 30% over 5 years. According to this Cal Matters article, the strike would have cancelled 30% of all UC classes. That number might be an underestimate given that 800 tenure track faculty had agreed to strike in solidarity. Nice to see such support amongst colleagues! Hopefully these raises will provide some stability all around. The Cal Matters articles states that about 1,400 lecturers leave the UC system every year, representing 1/4 of that work force.

CSU Faculty Union Negotiates Raises, Pandemic Bonus and Path to Tenure

Thanks to their union negotiators, California State University faculty are expected to receive an immediate 4% raise and a $3,500 pandemic bonus. In addition, their pay could increase by nearly 15% over the next two years. Further, if ratified by the Trustees, the negotiated contract includes a path to tenure, requiring campuses to interview their qualified lecturers who apply for tenure-track positions. There are other aspects of the contract, such as creating working groups to assess parental leave and options to on-campus police. 

Pope Francis & World Day of Peace

Members of AFLOC would like to share this World Day of Peace message from Pope Francis on how dialogue between generations builds peace, how teaching and education can be drivers of peace, and on how creating and ensuring fundamental human rights of workers and labor builds peace. The full document is about 5 pages. The Pope has already voiced his support for labor unions in previous letters and encyclicals, a position that is, as one would expect from a Pope and a Jesuit, aligned with Catholic Social Teaching.  CST does not suggest we merely promote the idea of unions as long as they are elsewhere, using the "we support them for people other than ourselves" argument, while neglecting to support them in our own context and community of people who labor. Labor and organized labor are foundations of our democracy and pro-labor stances deserve to be modeled, taught, enacted and experienced by employees at SCU. Here's to being a part of building that peace that is derived from labor justice!

LA Times: Colleges’ Reliance on Adjunct Faculty Gives These Part-Timers More Power, If They Choose To Use It!

A recent editorial by the LA Times Editorial Board correctly identified that "Increasingly, the work of instructing students now rests with lecturers or adjuncts — non-tenure-track faculty, almost always working part time for less money and with almost no job security." Citing the recent UC agreement, the editorial board notes that the increased presence of adjunct faculty also brings POWER! "As higher education hires more adjuncts, it also relies on them more. Colleges and universities can’t fulfill their teaching mission without them — which gives part-timers more power, if they choose to use it."

They showcase a new book, "Power Despite Precarity: Strategies for the Contingent Faculty Movement in Higher Education." In paraphrasing one of the authors, the editorial notes, "the tentative UC agreement ... has awakened a sense of the possible in adjunct faculty nationwide and should be seen by higher education as a warning shot. Only about 20% of non-tenure-track faculty are unionized, a number that probably will rise now." We like the sound of this!

So Let's Get Powerful!

Make no mistake. AFLOC will keep asking for a free and fair election until we get one. We will continue our on-campus visibility beginning week 2. Stay tuned!

Step One is for You: Please Sign (and Re-sign!) Union Cards

We continue our efforts to collect signed union cards from EVERY eligible adjunct faculty and lecturer employee that will be represented in our future union. If you are a QAL, AYAL, RTL, or Senior Lecturer WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!!! Please take a moment to click this link and sign your card today. Signed cards are strictly confidential and the administration will not see that you have signed. 

Why sign a card? It lets the union organizers know that you are in favor of having a union represent you to negotiate with the employer for better compensation, benefits, and working conditions. It also allows us to have an accurate gauge of our support. Signing a card is a VERY IMPORTANT first step. 

All union cards are only good for one year, so if you think that you have previously signed but are not sure if your card is still current, please sign a card again. You will not be counted twice and it is better to sign again, rather than have your card expire. 

If you are unsure about where you stand on the union movement and would like to learn more, please email us at scuafloc@gmail.com.

Supporting Our Students 

We continue our efforts to support student mental health, after a trying Fall term. We believe that one way to support the students is to work as a community to address the pressing issues that keep SCU from being the place we all want it to be. Together we are strong! 

Yours in Service, 

Dawn, Stephanie, Maggie, Natalie, Deirdre, Andrew, Robin, Madeline, Derek, Mary, Kristin & Ruth