While Governor Phil Bredesen presented the “State of the State Address,” students have been struggling with the idea of the 12-hour tuition cap that may be added next semester at Tennessee colleges, which would charge extra for every hour extra taken, in addition to rising tuition costs. While students might be eager to hear the governor speak about this issue, Dr. Shirley Raines, President of the University of Memphis, is otherwise pleased that he will not speak about the budget until late March. Originally, he planned to cut $900 million from the budget on top of the $500 million that was cut this past year. “We are hopeful that the federal stimulus bill will be passed and some relief given to higher education and all of state government,” she writes in a mass e-mail to all students, faculty, and staff. “We are hopeful that initiatives in the federal stimulus package will include substantive assistance for students and funding to help offset some of the rising costs of higher education.” The governor, in his speech, recognized that as tuition costs rise, more students may be omitting college as an option, which is the exact opposite of what he wants to accomplish. “You often can’t be the biggest, or the richest, but you can still try to be the smartest,” Governor Bredesen said. “Over these next couple of years, let’s figure out how to do that.”

Since politics have always been a part of her life, Stallings is leaning strongly towards political science. When asked what she’d want to do with that degree, she mentioned just a few causes off the top of her head she’d want to help with: “the AIDS crisis in Africa, the conflict in Gaza…” And it’s not like she doesn’t have experience working for a cause. She currently volunteers with Meals on Wheels, an organization that is committed to delivering food to seniors and reducing the isolation felt by many seniors living alone. She was also a mentor for Big Brothers Big Sisters, the oldest and largest youth mentoring program in the United States.

After being asked if she’d continue her higher education by attending graduate school, she shakes her head, saying, “I’m just ready to get out there and help.” She has big dreams: wanting to help with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an issue that she feels passionate about; helping Memphis literacy programs for children and adults; and maybe even dancing professionally on the side. Stallings might be leaving the Journalism Department, but she will definitely be at home wherever she decides to go.

When Carol Oster came of age, the drinking age was 18, the Vietnam War was almost over, and social progressive views were growing in popularity. By the time she enrolled in Tarrant County Junior College, she knew what she wanted to do: computer programming. The field was relatively new, but she knew she would be guaranteed a job when she graduated and it was a secret passion of hers. “Computers were as big as a room,” she says. “It was mainly for businesses, so I couldn’t learn on my own.” When asked if she was a self-described computer geek, Carol is quick to rebrand herself: “I was more business-oriented than anything.”

Carol was working long hours during her time at college. As soon as she turned 18, she moved out of her parents’ home and lived with a roommate in a tiny apartment located in Dallas, Texas. Her mother in particular was not willing to give Carol the freedom she truly wanted, and with two other siblings, the youngest being three at the time, that may have contributed to her moving out so quickly. Thanks to her outstanding debts and long hours, Carol became behind in all of her classes and ended up dropping out of school.

That’s not to say that Carol hasn’t had a successful or fulfilling life: she traveled to Mexico frequently; married at 33 to an Italian with a name far more complicated than her own; had a baby girl at 36; moved from Dallas to Memphis, Tennessee; and currently has a comfortable job at a long-standing company, working with computers. When asked, though, if there is one thing she wants to accomplish in the future, she almost immediately knows: “To become financially independent.” The supportive mother and wife may have the same idea as many Americans, but none can possibly have her story. And she’s got more to tell.

Sheifali Bhatnagar is more than happy to tell you about her college experience. Originally a Biology/Pre-Med major, she came to terms with the fact that she was naturally driven to write. She was discouraged by her classmates’ focus on recommendations for medical school rather than science and took a two-year break from college. In that period, she became drawn to slam poetry, a spoken-word medium used by many urban youths to express their political views. She toured with a poetry troupe and competed in various tournaments, and ended up developing her favorite piece, “Mindfuck,” in the process. She describes her poem as a “marriage of sex and politics,” a way to turn you on and tune her in.

Bhatnagar’s hands start moving wildly and she speaks much more eloquently as she begins to talk about a paranoid government and an uncaring youth. She says journalists will be the ones to stand up and start a revolution, to pass the torch of knowledge, to inform and call others to act. “They will redefine patriotism,” she says, almost excitedly. “They will redefine the American dream.”

Bhatnagar realized she was a journalist, especially when she came up with the idea for a magazine called IMpassion, pronounced i-AM-passion, to give the younger generation a voice to speak for what they believe in. Without it, she believes there is far too much apathy: “I think too many people are waiting around for another Martin Luther King, instead of standing up.” As she continues to explain her ideas and beliefs, you can tell that her lost passion for biology has found a new home: “Journalism was kind of a crazy that stuck with me,” she says, reflecting on her decision to switch her major. If that’s a kind of crazy, she may have landed in a funny farm.