Oral History Interview with Gabriella Folsom (Part 1)

We can get started so, hi. Today is Monday, March 20th, 2023. I am Katey Ryan, and I'm here with Gabriella Folsom on the quad at American University. It is 11:30 a.m. and we are conducting an oral history interview for the Preserving the Picket Line AU Staff Union Archive, thank you for joining us here Gabriella.

Thanks for having me!

So, are you okay with me taking this video? Yes, awesome. Let's get started. Some questions are. All right, how would you describe your involvement in the union and or strength?

So I started at AU about two years ago and I wasn't in the Union. At first, I actually didn't even know that we had a union. It was only a couple of months in - maybe like six or so months in - that I found out. And part of that was just it was really difficult to communicate over the pandemic with virtual communications. Everyone was remote for the first couple months of my employment and as a result, it was pretty difficult for union folks to just like physically go and see people or go to offices to just recruit and they were rely otherwise on a list of employees provided by AU, which AU did not give. So for the first couple months, it was like a pretty...it felt very chaotic organizing and bringing people in, especially with like the high turnover that AU staff have. It was a really exciting time, but well, I think I formally joined about six months in and started attending bargaining sessions as frequently as they occurred, which was pretty infrequent. But things started to really ramp up over the summer and that is when I committed to be a strike captain. For the first couple months, I kind of just walked around the turf, met my folks, met folks around the building and just kind of discussed the possibility of a strike, discussed the possibility of just a general work stoppage. And then I think a decision was made, really officially just a couple weeks before the actual strike so that is when we actually stopped. Myself and the other administrator in the history department were both out. A lot of the SAAs - senior administrative assistants - in the departments who do kind of the groundwork, the course scheduling, be like answering requests, data reports, and processing, all of the money. So it's a pretty important job for actual operations of the university. And when just one SAA is out basically, an entire department can be kind of out of the running for a bit. So it was a one-week work stoppage, which we committed to and we did it a point vote to extend the strike, but for the most part, kept it pretty tight to a week.

Yeah, I'm sorry. We should have started with this, but could you share what is your position on campus? What's your role?

Yes. Yes. Of course,

I'm the senior administrative assistant in the History Department. Like I said, course scheduling, finances, hiring adjuncts, money generally, just departmental support.

Thank you. And so what prompted you to join the union in the first place?

It was really just I think...I can't even remember who it was. Originally, I think it was actually Sam. Sam Sadow who is one of the Union representatives and is basically just like the most involved and wonderful person in the world. I think he just teams me noticed that I was interested. I signed my union card as soon as I found out we had a union and I think at the time they were mostly just like reaching out to anyone that they could anyone who expressed interest. And he basically just said, you know, they're doing a lot of work. There's only a handful of folks right now that are really pulling the weight. They just need people to like help organize, to help develop infrastructure especially because AU like didn't provide any of that. It was really just an all-hands-on-deck sort of situation. So because Sam is lovely and kind, I felt very moved to help and of course like I have a lot of loyalty to my other a staff but I do want to give credit to Sam because he really like met with many people and engaged with them personally. And I think really helped build this into the community that is.

Could you walk me through what the week of the strike was like for you?

Yeah, so it was hybrid at the time we were all working. I think hybrid or remote over the summer. So the strike I think looks very different than a lot of other strikes have in the past because there was a virtual picket line as well, and you know this is also still in height of the covid pandemic. So there's like an understanding you know Union folks really made it clear that like we should put our well-being first and our own health and priorities so folks that didn't feel comfortable coming on campus and engaging with like, you know, especially a crowd of people were welcome to join the virtual strike or post on social media and support, sign some of these petitions that were going around just like generally infrastructural support, if you couldn't be present on campus. So I was ritual, I think two of the days and then was on the picket line for the rest of them. Ritual strike was very lovely because it was mostly just sitting in that Zoom room quietly with your strike background and didn't have to do very much. But being at the picket line was really exciting. A lot of walking around campus meeting with folks, especially the first week. You know a lot of folks are on campus because this was during welcome week. It was just a really wonderful energy and most of the people on campus at the time where either staff or staff supporters are just people generally involved with or supporting the union, or it was like move in First Years who were coming in with their families and being like, overall, incredibly kind incredibly supportive considering this work stoppage was pretty significantly affecting their move, and experience, and their collegiate experience. I'm a first-generation student, so I'm really, I struggled for a bit with that idea of like ruining this kind of moment or, you know, ruining this kind of moment for a lot of the students that were coming in for the first time because it was a really impactful time for me. But ultimately I think really a lot of students felt enriched by that you know getting to interact with staff right off the bat getting to see what kind of politically active campus we have I think really did wonders for helping people especially because, like I mentioned, we were virtual for a lot of the time. So otherwise students really didn't have very much contact with staff members or with professors, or what have you, but a lot of folks were on the picket line, so it was a really great way I think to get acclimated.

What do you consider to be the effects or legacy of the strike?

I think the biggest legacy would be just a stronger and more supportive community around the staff especially because I think there's around 500 folks in the unit and of those people, I would say at least 200 must have turned over in the last year. We have really high staff turnover so otherwise I really didn't have very much contact with staff that were not a part of my direct circle. And this has given me a great opportunity to talk to folks in like the library, the career center, all over campus people who help support the university. And I know you know, people often say to me things like "oh I don't know what you do all day" or "what does your job actually entail" because it's really hard to visualize like what kind of support actually goes into a university of this scale and I didn't even realize like how much was going on all around campus. So this was a really wonderful way to kind of get more involved with other staff. Even besides all of this success when it comes to like bargaining and actually getting real improvements to our conditions that was, I think, maybe the biggest thing, the biggest impact.

How would you compare your workplace experience before and now after the strike?

It's a good question. Before, not supportive. Before I think...isolated sort of, I would say both within the unit and outside of the unit. It was really hard, I think, for people to even like express concerns or get those concerns kind of taken seriously. And now I wouldn't say that the AU Administration is necessarily more receptive of our, you know, requests and complaints. But like other staff are and other people in the Union are really supportive and are willing to kind of go out of their way to, like, provide documentation, or give you instructions. If you like think, something might be kind of not okay that your supervisor is doing, you know, you have like an actual community that you can reach out to people that you can talk to and before it was really just HR which the folks in HR, very lovely. You know, they are on the inside of the University because fundamentally that's what an HR department. Apartment is so I think having this kind of like actual concrete tangible support that staff can access is really as really wonderful.

And so what was the most memorable part of the strike for you?

Walk out, easily, at commencement or convocation? Sorry, I wasn't actually on campus that day. I think I'd like to start with that was Friday morning and the last day of the original strike, we were going to vote on, extending the work stoppage and didn't end up having to hold that vote because the university ended up meeting with us bargaining. And I really, I don't know actually how much of an impact that the student walkout had on negotiations. But from my perspective, at least, it really felt like cut and dry like the moment. Those students started walking out and it was hundreds and thousands. We thought that it was just that the ceremony had ended. So at first, we didn't even realize that it was like a thing in support of us actively and that I think just speaks like how he was that crowd was and how many people came out and religious like how touched and moved, we all were. AU is known for being a very politically active school. It's like the number-one most little politically active campus in the US and people are very supportive, but strikes especially it's really difficult for students, you know, to that are paying their tuition dollars to have some of these accommodations not actually given to them because there is no staff to support. So like that movement was really really impactful and I think really helped the administration decide that they had to actually end and bargain reasonably and give us what we were...had been reasonably requesting for at that point for years because even the students were really on our side.

I would again like to very much, thank Sam Sadow who is really just like the most wonderful and supportive person and Chadwick Asman. Really just like we have a great Union team and I'm really appreciative. And I would also say A you you need to allocate your resources better. I understand this is a very tuition based University. We don't have a large endowment, but if you don't pay your staff enough to live, then you kind of have to cut other corners. I would just unfortunately say, you know, if the university isn't solvent enough to pay its staff what they rightfully deserve then, the university isn't solvent. So, all of these like, Change, Can't Wait campaigns and fundraising campaigns I appreciate that they're going towards like some really good big picture goals for the University. But I really think that even though we have been given the bare minimum, in my humble opinion, I really think it would be in AU's best interest to kind of support the staff as much as possible moving forward. Especially, considering that a lot of our salaries are below market rate, especially compared to other universities in the area. It just really isn't providing the students with the support that they need to have educated staff who can continuously, you know, support these different departments because they have been in for a while. Stopping that turnover, I think is the best way to make the university run more efficiently. And ultimately it is important to invest in your staff. So that's all I'd like to to to say.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Well, thank you for joining us. We really appreciate your contribution to the archive. Well, we will be processing this interview as you know in the coming weeks and transcribing your recording. We will also share copy of the transcription with you. And at that time, you are welcoming changes. We are collecting these videos on behalf of the AU Staff Union. The collection will then be turned over to the AU Archive to be digitized and made publicly accessible to research with the exception of materials that the Union would like to maintain privately. Your contribution was incredibly helpful for this project. Thank you again.

Thank you!