I haven't been involved in the life of the list as much as might have liked to because of our effort to reform our local grad student union over the past few months. The top down nature of the union had led to passivity and apathy on the part of the rank and file. In response to that, as well as the poor contract that was recently negotiated, a reform caucus was formed, AWDU (Academic Workers for a Democratic Union). We managed to win the entire executive board as well as 45 of 80 seats on the joint council. However, this only occurred after simultaneous occupations of the UCLA and Berkeley offices after the leadership tried to stop the vote count when they realized that they were probably going to lose the vote. We're hoping to transform our union into a fighting union and get involved in the defense of public education going on in California right now. I am now the Campus Unit Chair of the University of Irvine. I thought I would put this up because there are far too few successes nowadays. Hopefully, it doesn't come off too much like self-advertising. robert wood