At first, I thought money invested into revitalizing main streets rather than industrial development was like throwing money down a rat hole. But now many people are moving out of the big cities to escape the rat race. They want to move to small, charming towns that offer a sense of place.

We have contingency factors built in for increased costs due to the market, and we can just move money from the contingency fund into the budget if we need to. I think we have all the big surprises taken care of, but we want to leave a pot of money for anything unforeseen. And there are things we can add back on if we have money left. With a job this big, though, I can assure you there will be changes.

They want more. They're a corporate bully. They want our lunch money, our futures, our job protections.

They thought up a ton of favorite places.

When I thought about engaging our students to be more environmentally conscious, I thought our residence halls might be easier to reach out to.

I saved the cardboard because I thought I would forget their names. Every year I pull it out and make sure we have their telephone number.