Hard boiled over tuition

Furlough day anyone … anyone?

No thanks.

I’m pretty sure I’ve paid for a desk and a lesson plan.

My tuition costs are climbing and I’m expected to be giddy about two class days a month where absolutely nothing is happening.

I better be getting a refund check somewhere in that illogical mess.

And while we’re on the topic of making cents, as in being nickel and dimed, I logged into the MySJSU Web site and did a once over of all the fees being assessed — what the hell is an IRA fee?

Changing the state of mind

In 1968, Walter Cronkite addressed the nation concerning his experience in Vietnam.

“It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could,” Cronkite said.

That night Cronkite tapped the most powerful aspect of journalism, stimulation.

He engaged the public and, while certainly stating an opinion, he also cultivated much needed dialog. It is through dialog and conversation that minds are change and minds are opened. Conversations at the bar or at the water cooler about Cronkite and his opinions led to discussions and an eventual swing of public opinion.

SJSU turns away future Spartans

With the recent $594 million California State University budget cut for the 2009-2010 school year and increasing student fees, I was surprised to discover that SJSU will not be accepting any prospective freshman for the spring 2010 semester.

According to the Santa Cruz Sentinel, that by closing spring admissions, CSUs hope to pull through the 20 percent decrease in state funding.

This is happening all too quickly — I was still trying to grasp the fact that this past July, CSUs decided to turn away 40,000 incoming students over the course of two years — but now zero within a few months.

However, it won’t stop here.

Let’s do something about it

“Let’s talk about it.”

What does this theme mean to me?

One of the major flaws that our generation has is not standing up for what they believe in. Maybe it’s because we feel inferior to some of the challenges we’ve seen over recent years — war, a spiraling down economy and the right to an education being slowly taken away.

So many young voters felt compelled to vote during this last presidential election to evoke change, but have yet to follow through and take action.

The serious side of things

There are a lot of directions Access Magazine could have taken and it’s not uncommon for student publications to take the easy way out.

That’s not what we did and I’m proud of it.

It was important for us, as a staff, to take a more serious tone with this issue because there is a lot of controversy in our world and it’s our job to speak out.

Hence the theme, “Let’s talk about it.”

More than meets the eye

I’m part African, but you wouldn’t know that by looking at me. My dad grew up in Zambia before moving to San Jose when he was 16.

My mother was born in India, and then moved to Kenya before growing up in England, but that’s not something you’d see in my face.

Being born and raised in California meant that I am disconnected from my Hindu roots. I don’t identify with my culture. That’s not something you can recognize by glancing in my direction.  I’m unable to relate to my family members who have grown up immersed in our Hindu celebrations and fasts.

Building change

Getting to assemble a magazine in one semester seemed easy before we started. The “Let’s talk about it” theme we came up with is aiming to raise a few eyebrows and rouse a few questions within the minds of our readers.

But constructing a magazine from start to finish requires us to look within ourselves and talk about issues we usually keep quiet about.

Within our first meetings, our class of 15 students had to delve into our feelings about race, diversity and the economic situation at SJSU.

Soon, class time not only held discussions of fonts and story ideas, but also housed our frustrations, worries and skepticisms about our culture and our generation.