Oral History Interview with Salvatore Cottone

So, could you please introduce yourself?

Yeah, so my...should I look at the camera or...okay. So my name is Salvatore Cettene I'm a sophomore poli-sci, major at American University. I'm also the senator for the campus at-large in the Undergraduate Senate.

Thank you so much Salvatore. So, today is Monday, March, 20th 2023. I'm Katey Ryan, and I'm here with Salvatore on the quad at American University. It is blank. It is about 1:30 p.m. and we are conducting an oral history interview for the Preserving the Picket line AU Staff Union Archive. Thank you so much for joining us here today. So did you tell me a little bit about your involvement with the Union?

Yeah. So I think it kind of all started to when I saw that strike, like the strike at the beginning of last semester and seeing all the freshmen turn out. I viewed that as possibly one of the biggest forms of engagement on campus, it was very inspiring for myself. So that's why I decided to run for Senate in the Undergraduate Senate for the campus at large, because I really felt like I was able to embody the views and positions of the students on this campus and also, just create a sense of well-being for all students and care about them. But also, our faculty. So, this semester I learned about the Temple University Grad Student Association and the crack-down on union protesters and strikers. So, I decided to make a resolution condemning that and the resolution passed by unanimous consent. And I was hoping to seek a precedent from the University to not do that, because it's obviously horrific to crack down on union leaders and taking away benefits that are guaranteed to them. And I forwarded that to the Staff Union. I also forwarded that to the Temple University Grad Students Association, and I was able to build a connection with the AU Staff Union but also Temple University and their grad Student Association and I express solidarity and they were really happy to see that there was student leaders that recognize how important to care for faculty and also care for union workers. So then that built that connection. And now I'm hoping to basically continue these conversations. Hoping that students realize that we have such a bigger voice than people think that we do and that was when one person from the faculty, the Staff Union said to me, that you do have a bigger voice than you think. And students have the biggest say in these conversations as well, and if you stand up with us, then we can get so much done. So now it's kind of in this moment where we need to continue conversations. I'm hoping to actually meet, have a meeting this week with someone from AU Staff Union to possibly discuss collaboration with student government and students on this campus and hoping that we can foster a community that is much more equitable for all of us and ensuring that students are in the conversations like when it comes to negotiating these agreements because there are student union workers on campus as well. So it's students and faculty can bind in this effort.

Just to clarify something that you'd said earlier when you said it was one of the most impactful or engaging moment is, what are you referring to by this? Was it the walk out?

The walk out. Yeah.

When I saw that walk out and hundreds of students like just standing in solidarity with our Union, unionized faculty, it was amazing and I realized that we can create a campus that is so community and civically engaged that we can be one of the best. Out in the country when it comes to and actually caring for our faculty. So yeah. I'm hoping that we can establish a liaison to the AU Staff Union. I'm hoping that these like collaborations and these conversations can evolve into ensuring that our faculty are guaranteed basic living rights as human beings that they have livable wages that they have amazing benefits because I know professors that have left this University because Basic, they just don't have good wages, and they deserve it. And I believe that students and faculty have such a great voice and that I hope that this connection can become so strong to the point where like Administration will have to listen to us. No matter what they can't be like, oh, I'm gonna do this because like, we have the power to I want faculty and students to be like, know we have the power in this, like, we have the voice. So I just hope to To create this connection that is so strong for us going forward.

Yeah, so I'm actually there is a campaign on campus. It's the Green New Deal for AU, which encompasses workers rights and faculty rights on campus and ensuring that they have the livable wage that they have guaranteed benefits that they are able to prosper at this University because they are committing their time, to this University and the Green New Deal encompasses a lot of things such as sustainability on campus, but it really emphasizes creating an equitable campus for everyone including faculty.

Well thank you so much. We really appreciate your contribution to the archive and to this project is very helpful. We will be processing this interview in the coming weeks and transcribing your recording at that point. We'll share a copy of the transcription with you. And if you want, you are welcome to make changes at that time and let us know. We are collecting these videos on behalf of the AU Staff Union and then the collection will be turned over to the American University Archive, to be digitized and made publicly accessible in the research with the exception of materials that Union wants to maintain privately. So again, thank you so much for your contribution.

Of course.