Where'd Winter Break Go?

I feel like just last week I was scrambling to complete my end-of-semester projects and wondering what to do with a whole month off. Yet, somehow or other, school starts Monday.

One of my professors thought this morning was the opportune time to reveal what book we'd need for his class, suggesting "Your best bet is to pay for expedited shipping." This strikes me a tad insensitive, but I'm trying to keep an open mind. (Until, at least, the second week of class.)

I looked at the book on Amazon and it seems like a collection of magazine articles on such arcane topics as...free market economies? Cultural politics? I skimmed the first few sample pages and felt it was a little dry. Maybe you can make sense of it? (The class is, by the way, Advanced Writing of Nonfiction.)

More dismaying is the recent news from the University itself. Apparently Illinois is in such bad financial shape that it's only given 7% of the funding it owes to my university. Because of this, the school's had to enforce furlough days on most of its staff, including my professors - one per month for the next four months, plus instituting a hiring freeze which effectively halts the development of our fledgling Asian American studies program. Furthermore, teachers aren't barred from taking days-off on class days, so I could be getting a lot of emails this semester saying, "Sorry kids, furlough." For professors who teach five days a week, this will be unavoidable.

The university's president hasn't ruled out the chance of things getting worse, either. He says: “At some point we will be unable to meet payroll and complete the academic year unless there are significant payments from the state as promised."

I keep picturing myself 40 years from now, seated around my friends at the AARP and reminiscing, "You remember the Great Depression of Twenty-Ten? They canceled class for two whole weeks!" (lol)

In any case, the new semester promises to be interesting. And a return to campus means...new cute boys! XD