Sarah J. Ryan, 2022-01-05

Item

Staff Only

Sarah Ryan Oral History Interview Transcript

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Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

The Evergreen Oral History Project collection contains interviews with more than one hundred retired Evergreen faculty, administrators and staff. These conversations were conducted mostly by current and emeritus faculty. From the initial year devoted to designing the College (1970-71) to the present, Evergreen has been a highly innovative academic institution, committed to pedagogy that strongly supports students’ learning. The project’s purpose has been to document a very wide range of experiences and points of view of longtime members of this community. Faculty narrators recall how they developed their practices of team-teaching, interdisciplinary studies, communities of inquiry, and other distinctive features of the curriculum. Nearly all narrators tell stories about their biographical backgrounds, how being at Evergreen affected them, and how their work contributed to students’ education. Narrators also reflect on how they and Evergreen responded to challenges and changes of politics and culture, including issues of class, gender and race, over the College’s first half century.

The Evergreen Oral History Project began in 2016. As of May 2024, 104 retirees had been interviewed by twenty-eight interviewers. Interviewers have chosen whom they wish to interview, which imbues many of these discussions with the tenor of dialogues between friends. Rather than respond to a preset list of questions, narrators discussed whatever was most memorable and interesting to them.

Special thanks go to transcriber Penny Miller, who made draft transcripts of almost all of the recorded interviews; Amanda Walker and Abby Kelso, Vice-Presidents for Advancement, who sponsored and found funding for the project; Pat Barte and Ray Janssen-Timmen, for administrative support; John Sheehy, director of Reed College’s oral history project, for guidance launching ours; Susan Fiksdal, Anthony Zaragoza, Barbara Smith, Nancy Taylor and Nancy Koppelman, each of whom interviewed many retirees; Liza Harrell-Edge and Sadie Aymond, for accessioning and managing the collection in the Library Archives; and the anonymous donor whose generosity made the project possible. Sam Schrager has been director of the project.

Dates

Creation: 2022-01-05

Biographical / Historical

Name: Sarah Ryan

Date of Birth: 10-26-1953

Place of Birth: Norwalk, CT, USA

Family Heritage: US born, white, British Isles heritage, hillbilly and Irish

Parents: Betty Rose Fry Ryan - writer, real estate agent; John Fitzgerald Ryan - insurance adjuster

Spouse(s)/Partner(s): Michael Watson, state employee and manager for Labor & Industries and Insurance Commissioner's Office

Any family members attended Evergreen? Yes, husband, 1996-98, evening and weekend studies, labor subjects. Sister-in-law, Tacoma campus, 1994-95

Schools attended: - Miami-Palmetto High School, 1971 - Florida State University, 1971-73, Political Economy (dropped out) - Georgia State University, 1974, Science basics - George Washington University, 1976, Spanish - Shoreline Community College, 1983, machine shop - The Evergreen State College, 1990-92, B.A. Political Economy, labor - Rutgers, 1992-95, MA Labor Relations, 1999

Work history: Holy cow! - Waitress and office work - 1971-76 - Equal Rights Amendment campaign staff - 1975-76 - Printing press operator - 1976-84 - Postal clerk - 1984-90, 1993-98 - Labor union researcher, 1991-93 - Adjunct member of the Faculty, Evergreen, 1993-1999 - Half time regular member of the Faculty, Evergreen, 1999-2000 - Academic Dean of Evening and Weekend Studies and Summer School, Evergreen, 2013-17

Teaching at Evergreen: - Labor studies, American history, American studies

Programs & themes: - "The Age of Irony: US History and Culture in the 20th Century" - four year-long programs taught w/ Susan Preciso and John Balderidge - "Justice at Work: Civil Rights and Labor Law and their Histories" - four two-quarter programs taught w/ Arleen Sandifer - "Suburban Nation?" - one quarter and two-quarter history and environmental studies, taught with Nancy Parkes

Governance/service at Evergreen: (all multiple years) - Council of Faculty Representatives (legislative representative) - United Faculty of Evergreen (coordinator, bargainer, organizer) - Faculty Agenda Committee

Some of your accomplishments at Evergreen: - My students seem to have thought I was an inspiring faculty member and good mentor. Many went on to wonderful careers in labor organizing, law, and public policy. I hope that as academic dean, I played a large role in building and sustaining a vibrant interdisciplinary program for working adults and clarified that as the mission of EWS. I succeeded, for a while, in getting some key outreach resources restored to the program, and enrollment in EWS and Summer School did not decline in my final years to the extent that daytime did.

Other interests/affiliations: Runner, tennis player, former member of the Olympia Planning Commission