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Alright, so, do I have permission to record this conversation? Yep. Alrighty. Is there anything in particular that you want to talk about? No, just in general, I guess the strike.

00:00:21.660 - 00:01:49.940

Alright, well, today is Monday, March 20th, 2023. It is just after 2pm. I am Emily Messner, and I am here with Michael Rogers, the Quad at American University. And we are conducting an oral history interview for the Preserving the Picket Line A.E. Stacking Unit. Thank you so much for joining us. So how would you describe your involvement in the strike? Yeah, So I got involved basically right after the walkout of convocation. So some of the freshmen were talking about coordinating that walkout and then it happened. I went out to where everyone was gathered outside and I joined them, joined you guys as you walked around. And yeah, that's kind of where I got started with that. What was the week of move-in and strike like for you? It was super cool because I've really been into like labor organizing, leftist politics way before I even came here to AU. So for my freshman move-in week to kind of move in and see all that organizing and activity happening right then was super cool to, super cool experience.

00:01:50.980 - 00:02:34.300

That's awesome. What do you consider to be like the effects or the legacy of the strike, especially as a student? Yeah, I think it's really cool to have a culture on campus of holding admin accountable, because they continue to kind of not hold themselves accountable in terms of Title IX and in terms of providing services for students. So I think it's super cool to have that kind of working between the students and the staff to kind of hold admin accountable. What for you was the most memorable part of the strike? Definitely the walkout. That was super cool. That was a super cool way to get involved with that.

00:02:36.280 - 00:03:23.180

Can you describe a little bit more about it? Yeah, I mean, I don't know a lot. I don't have a lot more about it. I just walk around. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, no, that's perfect. Is there anything else that you'd like to talk about that I haven't asked about? Well, I mean, it was super cool to get involved, that activity kind of got me involved with the YDSA club here. So I think it's super cool to have those organizations that keep us engaged as a AU community and keep us engaged in holding admin accountable.

00:03:26.040 - 00:04:04.420

Thank you so much for joining us. We really, really appreciate your contribution. We'll be processing this interview in the coming weeks and transcribing your recording. We'll share a copy of the transcription with you and if you want you can make any changes. We are collecting these videos on behalf of the staff union and we'll be then turning them over to the AUC archive to be digitized and made publicly accessible for research with the exception of materials that the union would like to maintain privately. So yeah, no, your contribution was super helpful and we just thank you. Yeah, cool.