If the trend of decreasing state appropriations to dear Old State continues, in 10 years Penn State students won't have a cent left to their names, or their bank accounts. The trend of decreasing public funding to Pennsylvania's public universities doesn't seem ready to change anytime soon, either, despite a recent, albeit small, increase in appropriations for the 2004-2005 academic year.

Some fear that eventually, Penn State will rely solely on private donations and tuition dollars to fund itself.

Recently, the state appropriated about $37 billion to the University of Pennsylvania's Veterinary school, and only $4.5 million to Penn State's Hershey Medical Center, which further exemplifies the serious nature of public funding to state institutions. In fact, Penn State has the proud distinction of receiving the least amount of money across the nation for its medical school for a successive period of time. Maybe Penn State should reconsider its curriculum in certain areas that receive increased funding from the state, if only to remain more competitive with our Ivy League counterpart when it comes to medical school funding.

Obviously, since Penn receives more funding for its Veterinary medicine program than Hershey Medical Center, there is a disconnect between what Penn State is trying to do, and what the legislature believes Pennsylvania needs.

Penn State needs to try to connect this misconception between what the state funds and why, that way Penn State can receive more funding than a private entity. Overall, the amount of money the university has received from the state over the past five years has been cut significantly four times.

Should students take a more active role to lobby for state funding? After all, how can officials in Harrisburg ignore public discontent if they can't get through the throng of protesting college students? Perhaps for students, decreasing appropriations are just one more thing to which we have become apathetic -- we simply aren't interested because we don't realize or understand the subsequent consequences of efforts to privatize our school. Penn State is a state-related university that was founded on the basic principle that everyone deserves a fair shot at a decent education at an affordable price -- and with continued tuition increases and state funding decreases, this won't be the case. Every four years, a new crop of students comes along who don't know the way funding used to be. Will Penn State go private? If the decline in state funding continues, most likely, it will.

But, only time will tell. For the sake of our pocket change and good of the commonwealth, let's hope not.