Day 30

I'm back!... Wait, what happened? Did I miss something? Thousands of faculty staff and students protested, marched, and had rallies around the entire UC system, you say? But I read that the Governor shrugged the whole thing off as just a bunch of eccentrics raising a silly little ruckus! I also read that the legislature is not interested in taking responsibility for the impact of the $800 million dollars in cuts to the UC system, saying that UC administrators were allowed to deal with the cuts in their own ways, so if there are any problems in the system as a result, we should blame UCOP.  But wait, I thought Yudoff and his administrators don't want to take the blame either, and are saying that the fault lies in Sacramento? Well if it isn't the fault of anyone in charge, then I guess that all means that it must be my and my colleagues' faults for making too much money and participating in the bloat, and students' faults for not paying enough tuition. I'm relieved that the finger is now pointed in the right direction.

Sorry about the lame post from over my vacation, I didn't realize it hadn't come out right. My supervisor had forwarded an email to us all that was sent to building coordinators around campus with the subject line, "WALK-OUT Precautions." Here is the message I was trying to share with you:

"Building Coordinators

As I am sure you are aware, the walk-out and its associated events scheduled for tomorrow may present some unique challenges for the campus as the majority of our facilities are open to the public. Although we do not expect any malicious activities, its [sic] possible your building may be marched through or even have minor disruptions, so it's best to be a little more vigilant of those who may be roaming our halls. It might be good to review standard operating procedures for this eventuality (see below."

Specific instructions on what to do in case of a variety of potential scenarios follow in the email. As far as I know, no buildings were occupied, but Sproul Plaza was covered with people, and the steps of the Sproul administration building acted as the soap box stage, which has been a tradition here at Berkeley since the movements of the sixties. I remember that when I first started working here, a staff person who works in the Sproul building said that while she thinks its neat that we have a tradition of free speech and protest here, that it gets pretty loud and annoying having to listen to the happenings out on the plaza every day. Ah, the costs of freedom and democracy.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go catch up from vacation and work hard to earn my depleted income so I can pay bills and restock my raman noodles supply. Tomorrow is the big day when we receive our first furlough paychecks. Can't wait.