Prologue For some reason or another, I feel like making this a little bit informal. And by a little bit, I actually mean in your face, blatant and woefully overstated. The ideas I’m presenting will make sense, but may take some nonsensical introduction.

Two weeks ago I went to the JEA/NSPA Spring National High School Journalism Convention in San Francisco. Twice a year the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association host the convention in a different major U.S. city so high school journalists from across the country can network with industry professionals and experience diversity firsthand.

It is impossible to walk around campus without running into one or two smokers. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, around 20.5 percent of Louisiana’s adult population smokes cigarettes regularly.  This means out of about 15,000 students at our university, around 3,100 students smoke.

As the Arts and Entertainment editor of this publication, I attend many events including theatre performances and concerts. Attending a performance can be extremely rewarding, especially when you allow yourself to forget reality and step into an imaginary world.

Contrary to popular belief, the report made by the university to the NCAA did not reveal a scandal of any kind. Sorry to disappoint. Consider what the athletic departments of Penn State or Auburn are going through right now. The fact that Southeastern mistakenly allowed ineligible players to play because of simple administrative faux pas is negligible by comparison.

Movies that show an empty, ruined world, like “Oblivion” or “After Earth” makes one wonder how we are affecting the planet around us, in ways both big and small.   According to the New York Times, China, which has the world’s largest population, has reported 1.

First it was the Boston Marathon bombings. Then it was a massive explosion in West, Texas at a fertilizer plant. Next, a campus police officer is shot, which turns out to be connected to those suspected in the bombings. An earthquake in China kills over 100 people.

Most classrooms were probably not built to provide an opportunity for teachers and professors to stand as political preachers and give a sermon according to the gospel of their affiliated political party. However, this is sometimes the manner for which it is used.

With Spring Break behind us, it’s all downhill from here. There is nothing to get in the way of us heading into finals and finishing up the semester. It’s exciting, isn’t it? Well, maybe for seniors. I found out, literally, this week that I will be graduating this fall; the end, or rather the beginning, for me is in sight.

It does not matter who is named president during the Student Government Association (SGA) elections this week. What does matter is what they do once they are elected. For the last two years student participation in student government, the one group to which all students belong to, has unacceptably declined.

This past week, tragedy struck a dormitory in the University of Central Florida as a student committed suicide. Upon his death, they found evidence he was planning an attack on one of the University’s dormitories. This created quite a stir in the United States, as colleges began questioning the safety of their own students.

Whether you believe in a higher power or not, everybody has free will. It was given to each of us upon birth, and we have the power to carry out our own desires. At the Greek Step show, I surprisingly learned something from the guest speaker Wynde Fitts.

You wake up in the morning and listen to your iPod as you get ready. You text while you walk to class, still listening to your iPod. You check your Facebook, post a tweet or play Angry Birds instead of listening or taking notes throughout the lecture.

Immigration looks to be the hot topic for the 2016 Presidential Elections, meaning a solution to the problem which has dogged the United States for decades might actually be found; and it’s about time. What makes the situation look so hopeful is the change in attitudes about the issue, most notably on the conservative side.

Fellow students go ahead and turn your pockets inside out. Or better yet, give them the clothes off of your back. The Board of Supervisors for the University of Louisiana System (ULS) has approved a 10 percent increase in tuition prices, a hike that will take effect at Southeastern and the other eight universities if each member meets the requirements of the GRAD Act for the Fall 2013 semester.

Let’s have a real talk about “the friend zone.” If you’ve never heard of the term before, don’t worry; I’m here to talk all about how it’s bred one of the worst ideologies that our youth popularly commit to today. For those unfamiliar with “the friend zone,” let me put it in a simple scenario.

Many therapists seem to be of the opinion that all the world’s happiness is encased in a tiny pill, and upon ingestion one’s innards will ooze blissful sanity forevermore. Maybe I’m exaggerating a tad, but medications do seem to be the go-to solution for many therapists when confronted with clients who are depressed or suicidal.