Yikes!

So, life is a little crazy here.
I'm earning my paycheck.
And then some.

Our new governor is making some decisions regarding the state budget that lots of people are unhappy with.
And that's an understatement.
[Here's a pretty good - and the newest - article giving a general overview of the mess.]

As of last Friday he is no longer allowing for unions to have collective bargaining rights - which essentially means that there are no more unions (except for the police, the firefighters and state patrol). Most of my staff (office workers, custodians, mechanics, painters, and teachers, just to name a few), are in a union.
There's a lot of unrest, and peaceful protests at downtown at the capital.
We're waiting on the legislature to vote on the matter, and overturn the governor's decision. No one seems to know when this actual vote will be, as it has changed 3 times in the last hour.
Yesterday, he called the number of people at the capital "insignificant." (There were over 13,000).
Pretty sure that was a poor choice.
'Cuz now people are REALLY pissed.
Folks are being bused-in from all over the state.
Some are sleeping at the Capital.
Today Madison Public Schools had to close because of a Sick-in (sick-out?). They just announced on the news that they will also be closed tomorrow. As well as many other area schools.
Many of my staff have been going down to the protest/rally/capital for part of the day.
It's pretty cool to see them coming together.
I wish I could go with them, to be honest.
But some of us need to stay and hold down the fort.
And plan for what happens when everyone else decides not to come to work, to bring the state to a grinding halt. So perhaps the folks in the state who think that all state workers are sitting around, earning too much money for not much work, will realize that this is kind-of-a-big-deal. Most staff I have talked to are on the party line - they understand that cuts need to be made to their pensions and health insurance in order to help the state budget - but the spirit of abolishing the collective bargaining rights seems awfully mean-spirited and inappropriate.
Tommorrow the TAs (and maybe faculty) and students are walking out at 10am, and walking to the capital.
Not sure what's next.

While this is definitely stressful from an administrator-who-needs-to-keep-a-business-running-standpoint, it's pretty cool to see faculty, staff and students come together and use their voices to ask for what's right (in my humble opinion). Love that. I hope that our representatives listen before the whole state goes to hell in a hand-basket.

Side Note #1:
**Note - just while writing this blog, 3 more school districts closed. Crickey.

Side Note #2:
Speaking of love . . . on Valentine's Day, there was a pretty cool campaign - faculty, staff and students sent valentine's to the governor, with messages of "Don't Break My Heart" and "I Heart UW" - 'don't do this to the budget'. Y'all know how much I love making cards, so of course I totally loved the creativity here, and had to share.