DOWAGIAC — For the first time in more than 30 years, the faculty of Southwestern Michigan College could become members of the state’s largest public employee union.

On Tuesday, the Michigan Employment Relations Commission will mail out ballots to the college’s full-time instructors, which will ask them whether or not they want to to join the Michigan Education Association, a statewide labor union that represents educators, custodians, bus drivers and others working in public education. SMC faculty members will have until Jan. 25 to return their ballots to the MERC offices in Lansing, where the state agency will tally the votes the following morning.

According to representatives with the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, the MEA filed a petition to represent the 58 full-time faculty members of the local community college in November. In the weeks that followed, enough college educators responded in favor of the proposal that the state could proceed with organizing a formal vote, said SMC President David Mathews.

Mathews said that he and other college administrators first learned about the possible move toward unionization last month.

SMC faculty members have not been organized through the MEA — which currently represents more than 157,000 Michigan educators — since the early 1980s. At the moment, no member of the college’s faculty, staff or administration are unionized, Mathews said.

The college leader said that he would be opposed to the faculty joining the MEA. Mathews said that, in his experience teaching at unionized colleges, an adversarial approach to negotiating pay, scheduling and work environment is harmful to improving the experience for students.

“SMC is really unique, in a positive way, where everyone is working together with student success as our main focus,” Mathews said. “We are different from most schools, but different in a good way. I believe most of our faculty feel the same — but time will tell.”

In spite of his opposition, Mathews said that he encourages every faculty member to cast their vote in the coming days.