Lillian Frame Interview
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- All right.
- So could we start with your name
- and position at AU I'm Lillian Frame and I'm a senior Feels weird
- to say.
- Alright.
- Today is Monday March 20th, 2023.
- This is Gabriella Folsom and I'm
- here with Lilian Frame on the quad at American University.
- It's around 12:30 and we are conducting an oral history
- interview for the Preserving the Picket Line: AU Staff Union
- Archive.
- Thanks so much for joining us here
- today.
- Yeah We'll start off with how
- would you describe your involvement in the union or in the
- strike? Just generally.
- So I have supported it since day one and I actually had the
- opportunity to be here for two strike days.
- I was out.
- I planned on one day I was here
- for just a few hours.
- The next day, I was like, oh I'll
- just go back for a few hours.
- I brought my megaphone.
- I was here for, from the moment it opened until the moment it closed.
- Lost my voice got sunburned, got the whole thing, but had a really
- incredible experience, and I've continued to stay involved with
- the staff Union.
- I lead a lot of the Survivor
- movement at AU.
- And so, Staff Union has been an
- incredible resource and kind of position of solidarity for us,
- where we work, very closely together, and they've been
- incredibly supportive.
- So yeah.
- Can you walk me through, what the week of the strike was like for
- you? It was like a week after I moved
- into my apartment and so it was a little bit hectic but I was still
- like, you know, I'll...I was sharing it as much as possible
- trying to get as many people to help out as possible and then the
- day of it was pretty much, you know, fun to be back.
- I like it was my first protest back in D.C. in a while.
- And yeah, I mean the next day I just slept for like, 24 hours
- straight, but the day of the strike was the day of the strike
- that I participated in primarily with my, you know, my big
- megaphone, had everything going on.
- It was pretty incredible.
- And what was the climate like on
- campus? I think, it was very Pro Union on
- campus.
- In my experience, you know, what I
- always said is like, you, send your kids to a political school,
- you got to expect some politics, and I think the parents kind of
- experience that firsthand, but even, you know, a lot of people
- were saying, well, now the first year students aren't going to like
- the Staff Union but then all the first year, students straight up
- walked out of Sylvia Burwell's commencement.
- So like what do they know? I think it's more, the parents
- didn't like, Staff Union, and they don't go here, so that's not
- there, that's their problem, I guess.
- But, in general, I mean, we saw, you know, coffee shops closed down
- on campus in solidarity, organizations were releasing
- statements in solidarity.
- All of these things that were
- happening and pretty much the entire opinion of the students was
- like, we don't stay here for administration.
- We stay here for the staff and our professors and so it's time to
- like pay them what they deserve and we were very much so full
- steam ahead on that.
- And what do you consider to be the
- effects or the legacy of the strike?
- I hope that it's a legacy of just social change on AU's campus.
- I think we've seen a lot of that this year, you know, thank God
- that they changed their motto to "change can't wait.
- "We've had a lot of fun with that recently.
- But I hope that it's just showing like yeah, AU students are most
- united when we are standing against administration and kind of
- using that as a message to both the current administration and any
- future administrations that we will, we have, we will, and we
- will continue to stand up against oppressive powers.
- What was the most memorable part of the strike for you.
- Oh my God.
- I had so many funny moments.
- One time, we were trying to get into Anderson and a cop tried to
- like put his hands on me.
- So that was certainly memorable.
- And it was AU PD and so I was like, I don't really know what
- you're going to do to me right now.
- Put me in like, Wonk jail.
- Like you don't have any real power
- in this situation, but he was like very much and I was like, all
- right, okay, the rest of the team got in.
- I was like, then I'm fine stand out here.
- There's also we were marching from down there to back to Katzen.
- And there were all these like frat boys who were around and they were
- like what are you here for? And I was like the union!
- I was like you're already wearing purple so you have to join, it's
- the law.
- They're like, okay.
- And then we had like half of a frat come and join the protest for
- like 30 minutes.
- So, that was pretty funny.
- I also like I just met so many really cool and incredible people
- and I just think it was all very, very fun.
- And is there anything else you'd like to talk about that?
- I haven't asked.
- No, I just think that the union
- has done great work and will continue to Thank you so much
- again for joining us.
- Yeah, of course yeah.
- We really appreciate your contribution.
- We will be processing this interview in the coming weeks and
- we'll be transcribing everything so we'll send you a copy of your
- transcript in case you want to make any changes.
- Do I need to sign anything to get the transcription thingamajiggy?