Dear Supporters:

At present, no miracle has happened. The WIU Librarians will be gone in under a month, as our layoffs take effect May 14. We lost our Step One and Step Two grievances (internal to WIU) and some of us are now moving the fight on towards arbitration (external to WIU).

The arbitration process can be lengthy, however, so in the meantime, each of us has been pursuing any option to enable us to support our families and, if possible, retain healthcare coverage: job searching and retirement. Of course, all of this is being done under duress and has taken up quite a bit of time, making it harder to continue regular advocacy and communications via email, SMS, and social media.

What is the university's plan for the libraries going forward? We don't know. Neither does the reorganization/rebuilding committee currently addressing the entire institution's structure. We have yet to hear how our duties will be done in future or who will do them. Our concern, as always, is for the students and staff of WIU. They deserve access to information resources and professional instruction in using them.

We plan to leave the savewiulibrarians.org website up and running until the process of arbitration is finished, or as long as it is feasible. Although we will soon be gone from WIU Libraries, this is not a message of defeat. We're leaving, kicking and screaming, and will continue to move forward in arbitration and advocacy.