I would just like to add a little bit about my lived experience as a senior administrative assistant in the history department in the College of Arts and Sciences and AU in general. I'm putting on my sunglasses because of the sun. When I first started at AU, there were about 20 or so SAAs [Senior Administrative Assistants]. And by the time we went to strike about a year later of those original 20, I was one of three left. So I think that really speaks to exactly how insane the staff turnover situation was at AU but in particular I just wanted to add to the historical record how much organizing and maneuvering work that Union and like the folks at SEIU had to do to get everyone together, really what a testament it is to their work that it became a successful as it did. And I'd also really like to thank the faculty in particular in my department, but really broadly at AU adjunct, 10-year term, a lot of folks really came together to support the staff, which was deeply appreciated, and I think before wasn't like necessarily...There wasn't necessarily camaraderie between staff and faculty there, they do, so that division pretty intentionally Administration. But this was a really great moment of solidarity between all of us and especially considering the adjunct and term faculty are unionized, unionizing. I think a really good opportunity to preview what that kind of process looks like and how it took shape actually functionally at AU. And in my department in particular I would also just sincerely like to thank all of the folks who made it very possible for me to strike. The problem with being an administrator and a problem that a lot of the other SAAs faced is that if you're the only one doing a lot of the administrative work in the department, when you leave for a week on an unpaid leave you come back to all of that work. It's like the nature of a white collar job is that it'll always be there for you to do. So a lot of folks really not only gave up a week of pay, but made their next couple weeks, really a lot more difficult, because they would have originally been the people picking up the pieces of everything that was messed up. And I think that's something that often gets looked over. And for that week, we were incredibly lucky and that our strike fund campaign goal was reached and exceeded. I believe the original goal was $10,000 and by the end we had $40,000 which is deeply touching and I know many faculty around campus rallied to support their administrators and staff and the History Department in particular gave the other administrator and I like a full week salary to offset our strike costs. And without that financial contribution I really think I would have been in a very different position and I really wanted to take a moment to recognize how helpful and how kind that was. I would also like to add that I do blame Sylvia Burwell personally for this. I know that there's a lot of rhetoric about how, you know, she didn't come to stop to the bargaining meetings or wasn't present and a lot of folks kind of just replied with like, "that isn't her job, she is a university president. It's a very overarching position." And I do understand that but I feel very strongly about the way that she in particular handled this and her communications to the staff were her worst and disrespectful of all of the work that we do to support the university. And especially considering the "Change Can't Wait" campaign of 500 million dollars which is on track to be reached. It is I think very telling how little of that money is going to be reinvested back in the staff. I also take issue with a lot of the tone that the emails from Sylvia, from Peter Star, from the administration broadly since have kind of taken of, you know, "everyone is now going to get these raises" and "AU is giving them to us" when in reality, we had to go on a full five-day work stoppage and give up an entire week of pay to get anywhere close to those. And now other staff are getting those only because we have successfully fought for them. So I do think it's important to acknowledge that this progress that we've made is because of the Union and not because of any goodwill from the university, which was fighting us kind of tooth and nail until the very end until the last bargaining session.
