Meet the newest member of PSUFA’s Executive Council, Erica Thomas! Erica, an adjunct in University Studies and PSU alum, joined the Executive Council recently as our new Chair of Political Action. We sat down and asked her a few questions about her work, what she sees on PSUFA’s horizon, and how members can get involved.
Where and what do you teach at PSU?
I teach a class called Design Thinking in the University Studies Department’s SINQ (Sophomore Inquiry) program. Design Thinking is a discipline that is often geared towards business, but the way I approach it is all about understanding and addressing complex problems in the world. I teach students how to do experiential research, dig deeply into why these problems exist, and then to imagine ways they could do something to change them. I love that my students in University Studies are coming from all different departments at PSU. It means that I get to have conversations with them about a lot of different subjects, and help them think about how those interrelate with societal problems and struggles.
My educational and professional path has led me into lots of different roles doing things like communications, branding, and design, but also art and political organizing, and of course teaching in various capacities. My education is in art. I have an MFA in Contemporary Art and Social Practice from PSU. Since 2017 I’ve also run a business leading workshops with topics like Equity in the Workplace, Identity & Messaging, Research & Innovation, and Strategy & Growth for organizations and individuals. I’ve also always been someone who is politically active since I was young. I bring all of this eclectic experience into the classroom with me and I think the students really enjoy it.
When did you first get involved with PSUFA?
I was an SEIU member from 2008 to 2012 when I worked in the PSU IT Department, but I didn’t know we had an adjunct union back then. When I got hired to teach in 2019 I immediately joined the union and I remember at the first meeting I attended I told PSUFA co-chair Ariana Jacob that I wanted to run for a seat. Since I only teach every once in a while, I ended up joining the Bargaining Action Team and helping with organizing bargaining observation, membership outreach and communications, and other projects. I’m still participating in the Bargaining Action Team, which has transitioned to focus on building solidarity among our members and strengthening our bargaining power for our next cycle in 2022.
You're the new Chair of Political Action. What does that mean to you? What's on your agenda for the future?
I ran for the Chair of Political Action because I wanted to see our union have a more public presence in terms of taking positions on policies and participating in political actions, as well as building relationships and community support both within PSU and with politically aligned groups. What that looks like practically is doing things like planning events where we meet members, organizing trainings for departmental stewards, publicly supporting other striking unions, showing up as representatives of our union at events like the Medicare 4 All March in July.
I’m currently representing PSUFA in a national consortium of higher education labor organizers called Higher Ed Labor United. We are planning a series of actions across the U.S., including at PSU, in September and October to demand government-funded college for 2- and 4-year students, minimum of 75% of professors to be tenure track, and a living wage for all staff and adjunct faculty in higher ed. Right now we’re working on presenting this vision platform to potentially sympathetic senators like Bernie Sanders, Ron Wyden, Jeff Merkley, and others.
I’m interested in getting students more involved in the union and prioritizing building solidarity with them. We like to use the slogan “Teaching conditions are learning conditions,” which is something a lot of the students I have met with can relate to.
“I’m interested in getting students more involved in the union and prioritizing building solidarity with them. We like to use the slogan ‘Teaching conditions are learning conditions,’ which is something a lot of the students I have met with can relate to.”
I also think it's important to enjoy organizing. So I want to find ways to make being in our union feel both empowering to our members, and also fun!
How would you like our membership to get involved with local politics or political action this year?
I’d love to see our members talking to their coworkers about why they are a union member, to share what we are doing to make working conditions better at PSU. The best way to build strength as a union is to have more members. That’s how we will win the conditions we want like better pay, job security, and employer health care. I’d love for our members to show up at rallies and marches and to participate in collective activities like reaching out to local and state politicians telling them to support issues that are important to us. There are so many labor-adjacent issues that relate to inequality, like supporting health care for all, eviction moratoriums, and so on. I also think self education is an important part of being politically active. Join a reading group or an organizers’ meetup.
What do you like to do when you're not teaching or working on PSUFA stuff?
As a social practice artist I make art in lots of forms. I produce a youth-centered show on KBOO Community Radio called Art Talk Bus Stop about labor in the arts, where teenagers interview artists about how they do their work and make a living. I have started making fine art prints and artist books over the last few years. On a trip to the Southwest last winter I started collecting natural pigment in the form of dried clay, and using that to make my own inks to print with. I also really like to be outside and do physical things. So I have a big vegetable garden, go hiking and backpacking, swimming in lakes and rivers, running and biking, as much as possible.
Interested in joining the PSUFA Executive Council? Email us at communication [at] psufa.org.