While many college students were busy leading their academic lives Tuesday evening, President George W. Bush was busy outlining his plans for the remaining years of his presidency.

In his annual State of the Union address, the president discussed many of the same issues he's discussed in previous years -- the war in Iraq, domestic safety and Social Security, and each with little variation from previous speeches. But in an interesting move, he also touched upon several issues directly relevant to students' lives.

The president's plans to stop America's "addiction to oil," and reforms for the current state of health care will be affecting students and future college graduates for many years to come.

The idea of an addiction to Middle Eastern oil, as Bush outlined, has been painfully clear to the pocketbooks of many college students who traverse across this state -- other ones, too -- as they zip between home and University Park.

To reduce independence on oil from that part of the world by 75 percent would certainly be a step in the right direction. Even if the U.S. were to continue to rely heavily on fossil fuels, it has become apparent that such reliance should be shifted elsewhere.

But the president went a step beyond simply suggesting the importation of oil from another part of the world -- he proposed to increase funding for clean-energy research. He called for a greater investment into zero-emission, coal-fired power plants, nuclear energy, and solar and wind technologies. And he also said he wanted the country to work toward improving the quality of batteries for hybrid and electric cars, and the production methods of ethanol.

While the entire country will benefit from such technologies, students graduating within the next few years will be the researchers conducting such experiments and producing such cutting-edge resources.

We will also be the consumers who will benefit from the technology and the tax breaks given to those who purchase the environmentally friendly vehicles.

Although the president did give students hope that oil concerns will be assuaged by the end of his second term, he failed to put to rest the same concerns regarding health care.

As the president noted in his speech, the baby boomer generation is turning 60 years old, and some of our parents will be reaching that milestone within a few years. Securing health care for our parents' generation is not just the prudent course to follow, it is also a vital course that the U.S. must follow.

If this issue is so vitally important for our parents and for us, is a bi-partisan commission the best solution to this conundrum? In truth, it seems like merely a bandage on a deep wound that requires more extensive and more thorough suturing.

Though college students almost perfunctorily ignore it when the president delivers a speech, the issues that his office compels him to grapple with are the same issues that affect them daily.