Higher education will soon come at a higher cost for students in Georgia.

The Georgia Board of Regents voted unanimously on April 14 to repeal the four-year-old Guaranteed Tuition Policy that requires a student’s tuition costs to remain the same during the course of an average four-year undergraduate career.

Commonly referred to as “Fixed for Four,” the Guaranteed Tuition Policy was instituted in 2006 by the Board of Regents to “provide better financial planning for students and families,” according to a press release by the University System of Georgia.

The board cites serious statewide budget cuts as the reason for their decision.

“The continuation of the Guaranteed Tuition Plan was contingent upon no budget reductions, and for the 2010 fiscal year, the University System of Georgia’s state appropriations have been reduced by 11.9 percent, or $274 million,” said Erroll B. Davis Jr, chancellor of Georgia’s Board of Regents.

Students who enrolled in fall 2006, 2007 or 2008, will continue to be covered by the Guaranteed Tuition Plan, and will pay the same cost per credit-hour that they have been previously paying since their initial enrollment.

Once students have exhausted the four-year life of their tuition guarantee, they can expect to see a nine to 10 percent increase in the cost of an average semester’s tuition.

Freshmen enrolling for the first time in fall 2009 will also pay the fall 2008 rate, with no guarantee regarding the future cost of their tuition.

Another aspect of the “Fixed for Four” policy, which will no longer be offered to incoming freshmen, directly affects students who plan to be enrolled “full-time.”

In the past, students have been considered to be enrolled “full-time” if they were enrolled in 12 credit hours of course work during any given semester.

Those who chose to enroll in credit hours that exceeded the “full-time” designation were not required to pay any additional tuition costs for the extra credit hours, with a limit placed at 15 hours.

Under the new policy, students who have not exceeded their four-year limit will continue to have the option to take up to three extra credit hours per semester at no additional cost, but incoming freshmen will not be offered the same opportunity.

Another expense resulting from the Board of Regents recent decisions comes in the form of the $75 “Institutional Fee.”

The fee, which was implemented at the beginning of the spring 2009 semester, was originally planned to be a one-time fee that would be used to offset the effects of statewide budget cuts.

However, following the passage of the state legislature’s drastically reduced budget for the 2010 fiscal year, it has become apparent to the Board of Regents that the University System of Georgia will be forced to continue its reliance on funds received directly from its students to help support the state’s educational system.

According to the Board of Regents, the Institutional Fee will continue to be added to the cost of college education statewide until further notice.

The cost of the institutional fee applies to all students, whether they are covered by the Guaranteed Tuition Plan or if they are newly entering freshmen. Also, the fee cannot be paid for by proceeds received from the HOPE scholarship.

With such an emphasis being placed on the economic aspects of college education, Augusta State University is focused on finding the best use of its own drastically reduced budget.

“We have tried to make sure that we have reduced costs in a way that doesn’t affect the quality in the classroom,” said Dan Whitfield, vice president of business operations at Augusta State. “This past year we have seen budget cuts of $3 million, and we will also have additional budget cuts of another $500,000 in the new fiscal year.”

According to Whitfield, funding from donations and private foundations, which constitutes two-thirds of the school’s non-state money, has also been greatly decreased.

“The funds that we receive from the foundations to fund some of our endowed faculty chairs have been impacted by activity in the stock market,” Whitfield said. “The economic downturn is really hitting everybody.”

Four years ago when I was still living in Paris, I received a letter stating that I was officially accepted at Augusta State University as a student-athlete. I did not really know what I was getting myself into, but as I get closer to graduation, I realize that coming to study in an American university might be one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Of course, I had to adapt myself to a new culture, language and country. Besides the fact that I was going to the Bible-Belt, I was not really expecting anything. I had never heard of Wal-Mart, gravy or rednecks before I came to Augusta.

Because I am a native of Paris, I have to admit that Augusta was a real culture shock. I did not know how to react when people I had never seen before were smiling and waiving at me in the streets. I had never learned how to drive a car either. Back home, I had a scooter, and subways ran pretty much all day long, anyway.

Even though I had taken English classes since I was 12 years old, I could barely speak English when I first arrived in Augusta. Thank God I had to take two ESL (English as a Second Language) classes because I was an international student. My professor, who was originally from Brazil, may very well be the hardest professor I have ever had. Thanks to her and her advice, I could finally write a paper and express myself. As for my other classes, PowerPoint saved my life during my first semester.

My cross-country team and the friends I have met during my journey are probably the memories I will treasure the most. Yes, getting used to practicing every single day and competing in races every single Saturday was very painful and tough. However, the hard work eventually paid off, and my coach led us to great accomplishments, such as being qualified for the nationals last season.

As for my friends, most of them are international students, too. They come from Brazil, Sweden, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada and the Czech Republic. Thanks to them, I have learned even more about different cultures, values and ,of course, languages. They helped me settle into a new life and go happily through it.

Before I left Paris for good, I was convinced that I would eventually go back and spend the rest of my life there. Living in another country for a few years and traveling all around the world proved the contrary to me. I know where home is; I just don’t know which one to choose.

As one SGA president says his goodbyes, another gears up for her run as the president of the student body.

Maritess Banez, a junior nursing major, entered the senate during the second semester of her freshman year. She explained that she joined SGA because she had some friends that were involved and wanted to see what it was all about. She had been a part of her high school student government and wanted to see how a college student government would differ.

“(Being in SGA) is something I really like,” Banez said. “It is more involved than high school student government.”

Born in Chicago, Banez has realized that students are the “key” to making their school work. She is involved in Alpha Delta Pi, Student Friendship Program and Relay for Life. She also works as a resident assistant at University Village and was an orientation leader last fall.

“Being involved in a lot of different things on campus, I have gotten to hear both sides of pretty much any argument,” Banez said. “I have gotten to hear people’s voices, and seeing all the new freshman and transfer students, you hear a lot about things they did at their colleges and what they want to see done.”

Her involvement on campus is exactly what current president of SGA, Andre Goodman, said he believes will allow Banett to pull more students in. According to Goodman, Banez is more social than he is, and she has the ability to make SGA a more exciting institution.

“Her big smile and physical enthusiasm will get students interested in SGA,” Goodman said. “She puts a different face on SGA.”

The most difficult aspect of SGA that Banez said she has had to overcome is learning how the university system works.

When asked about her plans to recruit future members of SGA, Banez said she believes that the biggest challenge facing SGA recruitment has always been creating an awareness of it.

“Getting students to stay and get involved in things is a hard task to do,” she said.

One of Banez’s goals for the future, she explained, is to see everyone on campus come together and get involved in one way or another. She said that she hopes to see a member from every major and organization be a part of SGA. One problem Banez said she thinks keeps students away is not having quick results.

“It is hard for students to not see the changes they want instantly,” Banez said. “They expect it to happen ‘like that’ and be implemented (quickly), and some things (happen quickly). We did a microwave resolution (to add one in University Hall), and that is something we have done instantly. It is there now, running. The other things that have not changed are taking time.”

For example, Banett has been a part of an investigation on the Humanities program on campus. She has compared how the classes are structured with other schools and has found that when students transfer, sometimes their humanities credits do not always follow them.

Therefore, according to Banez, many students postpone these classes, not wanting to spend two semesters on classes that will not benefit them. In the end, the structure was not changed, but the debate did last for “quite a while,” according to Banez.

As Banett beings to embark on a new position at the university, she gives this advice to students.

“College is what you make it. If all you do is come to class and leave, then that is all you will get out of college. If you become involved, you will get more out of it.”

SGA has found a new treasurer to be part of the executive branch for the upcoming school year.

Katurah Jackson, a sophomore English major, said she decided she wanted to be treasurer after being a senator for two years.

“I always wanted to have an executive position anyways, she saud, “and what better (way) to do it than to work my way up!”

Jackson said she is very involved on campus. She is the Traditions Chair of the Jaguars Activity Board (JAB) and the secretary of the Black Student Union. With JAB, Jackson has helped prepare major events around campus.

“My goal was to see how many different things I could be in,” Jackson said.

Her involvement caught the eye of current SGA president, Andre Goodman, who said he believes that she is very dedicated to Augusta State University.

“I am really pleased about how she campaigned and really got students to vote,” Goodman said. “It (serving in SGA) is not about being elected; it is more about getting students to know about what you are doing and who you are.”

Jackson said she plans to see SGA grow over the next year.

“I would like to see SGA get more involvement from the students,” she said. “I would like us to get our name out there more so the students not only know what SGA stands for and what we are about, but who we represent. A lot of students don’t know about SGA: what it is about or what it is for.”

When Jackson first joined SGA, she said she had to overcome some struggles of not knowing about the basic setup of SGA and therefore would like SGA to hold discussions to receive more student input.

Jackson is not only a senator in SGA, but she is also on the Student Welfare Committee and the Committee on Committees.

“With Committee on Committees, we have interviewed future senators and people who are interested in being senators,” Jackson said. “We get to go through the process of actually finding out why they want to be in SGA and why they want to be a senator.”

According to Jackson, the Student Welfare Committee’s job is to discover what students want and need.

“There was an incident with the art students’ bathroom,” she said. “It was in really bad condition. Also, the (Public Safety) call box by that building was not working, and it was not in a well-lit area. So, we fixed it.”

While on the senate, Jackson has learned about agendas, recording the minutes, and how the meetings are run. For upcoming senators, Jackson asked that they all be true to their word.

“Stand by what you say,” Jackson said. “If you say you are going to do something, then do it. If you are not trying to better something, then don’t do it at all. If you have something to say, then join something. But if you just have something to say and you are not actually willing to do the work, then it’s better for you not to say anything at all.”

Although she is ready to take on a new adventure, Jackson says that she will miss her time in the senate.

“I have loved being a senator and I will miss it a little bit,” she said. “One of the aspects I have liked a lot was seeing the debates because the president does not always agree with the senate or the senate chair or the judicial chair. There is always going to be some kind of disagreement, and it is not like an ‘argument disagreement’,t is like a ‘debate disagreement.’ It is so much fun to see how they cannot agree on a subject but still maintain their professionalism.”

Gilbert Lewis, a Spanish education major, has been chosen as the university student of the year by the Georgia chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP-GA).

“I am very proud and thankful that I was nominated,” Lewis said.

Lewis demonstrates his talent and love for Spanish both on campus and in his community.

“Gilbert (Lewis)serves as a role model to Americans because he has been able to become near-native fluent in Spanish without leaving this area, which is truly amazing,” said Jana Sandarg, professor of Spanish.

Some of his language experience beyond the class room includes participating as an member of the Spanish Club, tutoring students in Spanish at Augusta State, working as a translator and writing for the local bilingual newspaper, “Hola.”

“I like to use my language to translate for friends and for casual conversation at Borders(Bookstore),” Lewis said.

Lewis began speaking Spanish in seventh grade and said what interested him the most at the time was “having lots of friends who spoke Spanish.

“I thought it would be cool to understand their language and culture,” he said.

Lewis gave this advice to students who are interested or trying to learn Spanish:

“Get as much input as you can by just being around the language and people as much as possible,” he said.

According to Lewis, although Spanish is his language of choice, if he were to take another language he said that he would pick all French next.

Lewis’ honors and awards include winning the rating of “Super” in his essay in the 2008 Composition Contest, receiving sponsorship from AATSP-GA and receiving the Hispanic Outstanding Leadership Award (HOLA) for Youth Leader.

In April, Lewis became a member of Alpha Mu Gamma, the national collegiate foreign language honor society. When Lewis finishes school he said that he plans to teach, preferably college.

Lewis will be recognized for his achievements in Spanish with a plaque from the Georgia chapter of the American Association of Teacher of Spanish and Portuguese.

With Georgia’s influx of state revenues dwindling and the rest of the nation’s economy sinking, many lawmakers are looking for every possible way to gain much-needed income from the people they represent.

Due to the fact that the majority of U.S. citizens are non-smokers, any politician with half of a brain (the smarter half) knows that upsetting the minority isn’t a major cause for concern in a democratic society.

This is why the idea of increasing tax rates on cigarettes and other tobacco products has become such a popular method for governments to increase revenue.

I will freely admit that smoking is a terrible habit that kills hundreds of people every day, and the idea of children taking up this horrendous habit is absolutely appalling.

However, our government’s belief that the use of certain substances can be decreased through taxation is dangerously misguided. Recent anti-smoking campaigns nation-wide have focused on the idea that more expensive cigarettes will create fewer smokers in the future. Strangely enough, this kind of rationale is prevailing with little opposition in most states.

The kind of people that believe government control can influence citizens’ lives for the better are the same type of people who support the “War on Drugs,” the “War on Terror” and whatever else the government has lately declared war on.

Everyone knows that government prohibition and taxation are not effective deterrents when it comes to keeping people from buying whatever it is that they choose to pay for.

Since the beginning of April, 2009, a pack of name-brand cigarettes has cost around $5 in our state. Although this is a record-high price, most people who have smoked cigarettes for a significant portion of their lives have not managed to “kicked the habit.”

The only accomplishment that new cigarette taxes will ever achieve is that they will make more funds available to the lawmakers who continually choose to increase the taxes.

A common argument among people in favor of cigarette-tax increases is that if cigarettes cost more, young people would smoke less.

Anyone who has even the slightest knowledge of age demographics and their relationship to economic spending habits knows that young people have more disposable income per capita than any other group. This is why higher cigarette prices are not effective in regards to curbing youth smoking.

As a matter of fact, price increases don’t deter adults from imbibing in vice either.

If government interaction and increases in the prices of unfavorable products actually stopped being from doing things, the United States would be completely devoid of cocaine, crack, heroin and other dangerous drugs.

Our government needs to learn to respect its citizens, no matter what they choose to put in their bodies. Although smokers are a minority there are still a lot of them. If the government ever made restrictions too hard on smokers, it wouldn’t be very hard for them to stage an uprising. Smokers already have lighters for their torches, so all they would have to do is go home to get their pitchforks.

Seventy-five miles per gallon is something to buzz about. It’s not a car, it’s definitely not a truck, it’s a Vespa!

What is a Vespa you may be wondering? It’s a scooter that was manufactured in 1946 by Piaggio, an aircraft manufacturer, to help Italians get around in a war-torn Italy. The word “Vespa” means “wasp” in Italian.

With a recent spike in gas prices and the higher awareness of environmental concerns, the Vespa has made huge sales everywhere, even in North America. I recently purchased my 150 cc Vespa here in Augusta from Triumph Ducati off of Wheeler Road, and I have been in love with it since I left the showroom.

My model, the LX 150 (LX being the Roman numeral for 60 to celebrate Vespa’s 60 years) runs at a maximum speed of 60 miles per hour, and sips gas at 75 miles per gallon. It’s perfect for inner-city travel.

When I filled it up at the pump, it cost me $2.36 on empty! It beats the $35 to $40 that it takes to fill my Tundra up every week.

If you are at all interested in these two-wheeled wonders, I suggest you do your research on which model will be right for you. Vespas have various engine sizes and price ranges to fit any budget, ranging from around $2,000 to $8,000. When riding one, you may get a feeling of being abnormally trendy, but that’s OK because, well, it’s a Vespa.

I remember before I even began driving, my dad asked me what kind of car I wanted to drive. I basically wanted anything that was a SUV or a truck. When he suggested I get a Vespa, I laughed and asked him what that even was. He told me, and I laughed. I couldn’t imagine driving one of those little machines.

After a few years of paying for gas on my first cars, which were a 1990 Cadillac Fleetwood V-8 and a V-8 Toyota Tundra, I realized those scooters couldn’t be such a bad idea.

My first trip out of the country really opened my eyes, too. Everyone drove scooters in Greece. It was really great. There were Vespas everywhere. You had to watch when crossing the street, or you may very well have been a victim of a scooter collision.

After doing some research over many different brands of scooters, I had to go with the original and iconic company. Piaggio’s Vespa is known to “last forever,” and if you look online, people are still driving Vespas from the 1950′s around. If that’s not a testament to quality, then I don’t know what is.

Now that I’ve bought my little red wasp, I can’t go on one ride without someone asking me questions at red lights like, “How much do those cost?,” “How many miles per gallon does that thing get?” and “Where can I get one?”

The Vespa is definitely a head-turner anywhere you go.

Despite the limitations that come with any two-wheeled vehicle, it’s still a great fair-weather vehicle to have in an urban area. For anyone who needs a secondary vehicle to avoid the price of a SUV or truck, I would highly recommend any of the Vespa models.

MILK: Sean Penn is a revelation as Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected into public office in California. The movie follows his character from when he opened a camera shop in San Francisco’s Castro district to his election into public office to his ultimate assassination by Dan White (a compelling Josh Brolin). Director Gus Van Sant’s passionate and immersive directorial flourishes ensure that there is never a dull moment in the entire film, and his decision to insert real footage into the movie lends the proceedings an extra feeling of authenticity that is simply irresistible. The highlight of the movie is easily the scenes where Milk gets into heated debates with a couple of homophobic politicians. These scenes are wonderfully written and raise a couple of points that leave you with a lot to think about.

THE READER: Are you kidding me? Last year we saw Clint Eastwood act and direct a movie, which is easily his best since “Mystic River.” For some reason, that movie did not receive a single nomination, yet a plodding, pretentious, and pointless drama like “The Reader” walks away with five nominations. The post WWII story, based on the book by Bernhard Schlink, follows a 15 year old boy named Michael Berg (David Kross) as he engages in an illicit affair with a 35-year old woman named Hannah Schmitz (Kate Winslet) for the duration of one summer. Then, as a college student, he attends a trial where Hannah is being tried as a Nazi war criminal. I saw the movie with Bell Ringer Web Master Ryan Townsend, who turned to me after the movie was over and said, “There was no point to that movie.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE: This movie is a treasure, vibrantly directed, beautifully visualized and flawlessly acted by a cast of unknowns (with the exception of Irrfan Khan who was last seen in “The Namesake” and “The Darjeeling Limited”). “Slumdog Millionaire” tells the dark yet uplifting rage-to-riches tale of Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), a young man from the slums who finds himself a contestant on India’s version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” However, because he is doing better than many of the show’s more educated contestants, who “have never made it past 16,000 rupees,” he is taken in by the police and is accused of cheating. The majority of the movie is told in flashbacks, showing how certain events from Jamal’s life have helped him in answering every question on the show right. A heart-warming love story, a powerful character drama and an intelligent look at the Indian culture, “Slumdog Millionaire” goes some very dark places (one scene shows someone blinded with acid), yet in the end, it leaves you smiling and full of hope. I can’t wait to see it again!

With long, hot summer days quickly approaching, SGA is ready for a new school year with a new vice president.

Brett Parker, a junior political science major, said he is prepared to be vice president because he is vice president of his fraternity, Delta Ki.

Parker said being in a fraternity allows Parker the ability to talk to different members and get them interested in SGA.

“I like it,” he said, “and it is something that will get you involved in the school. It is a good way to branch out and say, ‘Hey look! Student government is here. Come check it out.’”

Being involved in “Greek Life” is something that current president of SGA, Andre Goodman, said he thinks will allow Parker to lead a different caliber of students to SGA.

“My hope is that Brett (Parker) can encourage Greeks to be involved in SGA,” Goodman said. “He is able to connect to people on campus and off campus.”

For Parker, moving to an executive position was a stepping-stone for the future.

“I didn’t know exactly what I was doing per say, so I didn’t want to run for president,” Parker said. “I want to dip my feet into the executive position before I really get into the role of president of SGA.”

Looking into the future, Parker said he knows the issues that he wants to see addressed.

“I want to change the way we allot money to these organizations that really don’t do anything with it,” he said. “Not to say that every student organization does this, but the people that come to us without going through the proper channels or without raising the money themselves, it bugs me.”

Along with allocating money, Parker said he is hoping the attitude of the new senators will change.

According to Parker, some of the past senators have joined SGA to put another activity on their resumes.

“I wish the people who come in (to SGA) will want to have a voice around campus,” Parker said. “This is a very apathetic campus. It takes five days to get 500 people to go vote for an SGA election: that’s absurd. I wish people would come in wanting to do work, wanting to get SGA out there, wanting to help the students out in any way they can, because that’s the point of SGA.”

Parker said he and the new president are already making plans. They hope to hold town hall meeting where the members of the executive branch will be able to answer any questions that anyone has about SGA.

Parker said that being vice president will give him some insight as to what will happen in his future career in politics.

“I hope it will increase my knowledge of the administration and workings of the school and help me with knowing how to work with people and deal with different situations,” he said.

“Trigger Man” isn’t really a horror movie so much as a film about people walking without saying anything.

There are many scenes in this movie in which people walk without saying a word. The plot focuses on three city friends who go on a hunting trip, and for the first 10 minutes or so, nobody says a damn thing.

They walk, and walk, and oh yeah, they walk some more.

Occasionally, somebody does say something, but their dialogue is so shockingly awful that you kind of wish they would just stick to walking without talking. There is one instance in which two of the guys talk about a movie they love, and we’re not even sure which movie they’re talking about.

Sounds like really compelling stuff, doesn’t it?

About 40 minutes into the film, the three friends come under attack by shooters who are apparently hunting them from a nearby abandoned factory. The movie keeps the shooters off-screen until the final five minutes, presumably in an attempt to build the suspense.

However, director Ti West botches his own efforts by relying too heavily on scenes of vile and sickening violence.

Whenever someone gets shot in the head, (and that happens a lot here) West makes sure to have a long, agonizing, close-up of blood spurting from the open wound.

There is one particularly nasty scene involving a female jogger who comes across the abandoned factory. She is in the movie for roughly three minutes and exists for one purpose and one purpose only: to get shot.

She is the only female in the entire movie, and it’s somewhat misogynistic to note that West lingers on her death scene longer than anyone else’s (the scene when she’s crawling through a wheat field is hurl-inducing).

None of this is even remotely scary.

When the final survivor of the movie stumbles upon the abandoned factory, the movie attempts, I think, to build suspense by having him walk around. I can understand that West wanted to suggest that the killers can be anywhere and ready to strike at any moment, yet he has no sense of pacing, and fails to create an atmosphere of dread and unease. We’re just watching a man walking for what seems like forever.

I do realize that I haven’t told you the character’s names, and there is a reason. It seems pointless to do so. None of the characters are developed in the slightest, and when they do talk, they seem indistinguishable from each other. I could tell you their names, but that would give the false impression that they have their own individual character traits.

Trust me, they don’t.

The cinematography from Ti West is absolutely dreadful. He’s constantly zooming in and out, blurring up images and filming people from far away during what few dialogue scenes there are, so that you can’t hear a word of what they’re saying. Apart from a few interesting compositions in the climax, West seems to have no idea of how to work the camera.

However, as chaotic as the movie is on a visual level, narratively speaking, it’s even worse, stealing from far superior works like “Deliverance,” “The Blair Witch Project”, and “The Most Dangerous Game.”

The final scene ending with someone getting a bullet to the head reveals West’s intentions for making this movie: exploiting violence for the sake of violence. “Trigger Man” is a boring and vile movie, the first horror movie that seems to have been made strictly for no one.