Member Perspectives: LEO-GLAM, “There is strength in the union”

On June 3, 2021, librarians, archivists, and curators (LACs) held their first membership meeting as “LEO-GLAM.”

GLAM stands for “galleries, libraries, archives, and museums,” and it’s a commonly used shorthand for the kinds of environments our information professional and cultural heritage colleagues work in here at the University of Michigan.

At this meeting, Colleen Marquis [they/them]—an archivist on the Flint campus—delivered powerful opening remarks summarizing how LEO-GLAM came to be. We are excited to share their words with you, and we hope you find this vision inspiring.

Colleen Marquis (they/them)

Flint | Genessee Historical Collections Center | Assistant Archivist

This union, which spans all three campuses, was years in the making and grew to fruition as all collective action does—through a group of work friends complaining about (what else?) work. But as time went on and the complaints continued (worsened in some cases), and nothing improved, these conversations grew into a mission. A group of us came together to form an Organizing Committee to ask our peers in the University system (some strangers and some dear friends), “Do you feel like this too? Do you think it could be better?” 

These were not easy conversations. They were fraught with anxieties for the future and more tears than I think any of us anticipated. Some conversations made us see one another in a whole new light, or see one another for the first time entirely, while others were heated and even ended poorly. But in the end, the majority of our colleagues said yes to collective bargaining, yes to a change and hope for the better, and yes to empowering some of the people at the heart of the academic universe.

Let’s not be modest. What is a university without a library, an archive, an art or artifact space? We are the wranglers of information, the interpreters of data, the professionals who hold down history, science, art, music, and every other subject a student couldn’t think of to allow for closer examination. It is past time we were treated as such and it is past time for members of our staff to have the same recognition.  

It is also time for Dearborn and Flint to receive recognition, support, and equality. The administration claims to focus and support diversity while it allows its two most diverse campuses to wither from neglect. I’m sure you all saw the question on the recent administrator review survey. As a member of the Flint faculty here at the Frances Willson Thompson Library, and as the sole archivist, the implication that sending support to a campus (and a community) still reeling from the Water Crisis would somehow “lower academic excellence” in Ann Arbor is insulting. Flint and Dearborn are not dirty secrets. The good name of the University of Michigan is not sullied by having campuses in cities with large communities of color and economic hardships. I was angry for my brilliant, hard-working students. I was frustrated for all the faculty and staff at Flint and Dearborn who do more with less because they care, and I was embarrassed that the “great” University of Michigan would think that about the future of students.  

That’s not a place where I want to work. The pressure put on the University by the pandemic showed us what we already knew—the system is broken, administration does not appreciate the non-tenure-track faculty, and it won’t be fixed until we stand together against it.

Finally, I want to say thank you. Thank you for signing that card and getting to this point. I know it was a difficult decision for many of us to come to. We feel lucky to work at the University of Michigan—hell, lucky to be able to make ends meet! But we deserve more. And thank you to all our colleagues in Ann Arbor for standing with the Flint and Dearborn campuses. 

Everyone deserves a workplace that is equitable, actively anti-racist, transparent, and with fair wages and a fair promotion system. Together we are now in the position to demand it. There is strength in the union. It’s a bright new day at the University of Michigan, no matter what campus you call home. Thank you, thank you, thank you, and Solidarity Forever.