Can anyone believe that Tennessee is above its revenue expectations? I heard this and thought to myself, 'Wow, hell must have frozen over.'

Just because the state has finally written a budget that can actually be met with taxes does not, however, mean that funding problems will be relieved. Governor Bredesen made this abundantly clear when he called for "all state agencies, including higher education, to begin considering how they would handle a five percent reduction in State appropriations in the 2004-05 budget."

Maybe I missed something. Is the governor and our state government so used to cutting the budget that they are trained to do it regardless of need? Could it be they are so jaded that they can't believe a surplus when it's staring them in the face? Maybe it's just because higher education is a joke to our representatives.

There is an excuse, of course, and it has something to do with using the extra money to fund "the state teacher (K-12) equalization plan, shore up the state pension plan, and support TennCare." This is according to Chancellor Dunagan's email to the faculty explaining this imminent budget cut.

It is important to note that this five percent reduction is not yet official. So far, it is just a request to be 'prepared' to cut five percent. While this may be the case, governors don't usually make public notifications of future budget cuts unless they are going to happen. I can't see this not happening.

What is our state government telling us? They are saying that it doesn't even matter if we have enough money for the budget or not, it will continue to be cut. That education is a low priority and will remain a low priority. That good faculty are not going to be gone after with much success. That very soon we will lose programs instead of just understaffing them. That if you don't think our higher education is in a healthy state now you'd better not hold your breath waiting for any improvements whatsoever.

Dunagan's email mentions looking at increasing tuition to make up for the newest budget cut. The unofficial figure is a nine percent rise in tuition to just cover the five percent budget reduction.

This may not be a problem though, since we should be so used to dealing with tuition increases that we are at least as well trained as the state government is at budget cuts. Of course students are paying this difference and not the government.

I hope that when this cut becomes official, our administration will not buckle under the pressure, like it has before, and simply cut an equal percent from every program. Eventually some programs won't be able to handle a cut. Eventually there won't be any vacant positions we can decide not to hire for. Eventually programs will have to lose secretaries and faculty. They won't be able to send professors to conferences or on travel studies. Eventually our administration is going to have to make some really tough decisions that involve the elimination of whole programs.

While it makes me sick, I think it's the truth. We can't continue to reduce the quality of every single program on campus. We are going to have to sacrifice some for the good of the rest. I see things coming down to this. I hope that the administrators will not shy away from their responsibilities to you, me and every single student on this campus. This is their responsibility - to provide us with an excellent education, not to be businesspersons and public relations experts.

I want to be proud to live in Tennessee and I want to be proud to have graduated from this university. I am fairly sure that I won't be.

How can I be proud to have graduated from a school that builds nice new football buildings while ignoring academic needs?

How can I be proud when my own program lacks the needed professors to teach contemporary American history?

I don't believe for an instant that every program on campus has the ability to teach everything that they ought to be able to. That is terrible. That is a dereliction of duty on the part of our school leaders.

What is the Student Government Association trying to do about this? Who knows? I would bet my money that beyond practicing to replace our state representatives they aren't doing anything about it.

What is the administration doing about it? Mostly sweet talking the faculty and students and failing to acknowledge the serious trouble we are in.

What then can everybody else do about it? We can write our representatives and the governor, asking them to stop cutting up our education system.

Until this state has a reliable tax structure it will not have a reliable education system. I call for an income tax. This won't be a political issue again until Bredesen's second term, if he is even reelected. While so many people are afraid of income tax it is rather shocking that no one seems too afraid of the current state of affairs.

If the state can cut education even during a budget surplus then the push to improve education is doomed. The Tennesseans that doubted a sales tax based system will be reassured by the surplus, those who attack an income tax will use the surplus as a recommendation of the current structure and the state's higher education system will continue to be cut apart until it can barely function.

Why would anyone want to go to school in this state? I can't come up with a logical reason. I doubt there is one. The 'inexpensive' answer is quickly becoming less realistic and the 'good education' answer is even farther gone. The way things are going a degree from the University of Tennessee will be more of a label warning than a line on the vita. You can bet your bottom dollar that I, for one, will not be raising my children in a state that actively seeks to destroy education.

It would be exciting to see more people get up off the sidelines and try to do something about this. I'd at least like to hear a realistic answer from our administration. No more sugar coated emails. Start telling the students what's going on. We may be your best ally for positive change.

Steve Helgeson is a junior History major from Chico, Calif.