College students are only a few short years away from entering the job market.How competitive will that market be? How much money will we have to pay in taxes once we receive that first paycheck? And what type of job security will there be?

Students assume they have little influence on the answers to these questions. But in reality, they do. Decisions affecting those issues will be made by the men and women elected to office - from local government to Washington D.C.

There has been little interest in the Picnic-To-Go program since the program's launch Oct. 2, says the marketing manager for TCU Dining Services.As of now, no students have ordered or purchased the Picnic-To-Go packages, which, Dining Services marketing manager Legia Abato said, is mainly because there has not been great weather.

"This is something we have been working out for a while now, and there was too much going on at the beginning of the year for it to be launched," Abato said.

Being liberal once meant being radical and perhaps original. But now it seems to stand for being trendy - at least in Austin at the recent Austin City Limits Music Festival. Granted, it was Austin, and beyond that, it attracted people from Sixth Street in Austin.But still, both edges of the political spectrum can fall into this trap, and you see it all over college campuses, even at good ol' conservative TCU.

In fact, being "trendy liberals" may contradict what they actually stand for.

When students graduate from high school, they look forward to college being a breath of fresh air: there wouldn't be any more quizzes, worksheets or busy work. If only that were true.

Many professors seem reluctant to end class on the belief that students were actually paying attention. So they take it upon themselves to assign two worksheets due for the next class and prepare a pop quiz.

Before all of TCU's aspiring actors, actresses and dancers go to Hollywood, the Student Filmmakers Association is encouraging them to audition tonight for three upcoming film projects, said the association's president.Jonathan Nicholas, the SFA president, said this semester is SFA's second year on campus as a film club, though, he said, the association only made one film due to a smaller budget last year.

This semester, SFA is working on three, five-minute films, one of which will be a music video, said Nicholas, a senior radio-TV-film major.

After looking at TCU's summer-school policy, a task force decided to amend the credit transfer policy, according to a Sept. 28 Skiff article. The new policy allows students to transfer only 12 hours from a community college before they earn 54 hours, or the equivalent of junior status, at TCU. I feel like a hypocrite saying it, and I know plenty of people disagree, but this amendment can only further TCU's reputation as a prestigious private university, and I believe this was the task force's intention.

The Student Government Association rejected a bill to establish caucuses within SGA and approved a bill to change the credit hours needed to qualify for student body vice president Tuesday night.Lindsay Beattie, elections and regulations chair, said she introduced a bill to create caucuses in an effort to have all representatives in a constituency get to know each other better and get more work done.

"Hopefully this will get people working on legislation a little bit more," said Beattie, a senior English major, before the bill was rejected.

Ever since I wrote about our culture as a society of waiters and how technology has weakened our interpersonal relationships in my first Skiff article, I couldn't help but notice how this breakdown of communication transcends formal encounters to matters of the heart, often damaging our intimate relationships."Don't write about the same thing twice." That's the first thing your editor will tell you from the list of opinion article do's and don'ts. But sometimes, there are issues that affect so many of us so often they simply cannot be left alone.

In the biggest tournament of the fall for the men's tennis team, the Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Tennis Championships in Tulsa, Okla., junior Cosmin Cotet won five matches in a row in the singles qualifying bracket, which was by far the best showing of any individual TCU player.The tournament began Sept. 30 and ended Sunday.

Cotet's most impressive win came in the first round of the qualifying bracket when he upset the tournament's No. 5 seed Bruno Agostinelli of the University of Kentucky.

Although unhappy with their results over the weekend, members of the women's golf team said they learned from their experiences and are moving on to the season's next tournament."We are a little disappointed in our finish," said head coach Angie Ravaioli-Larkin. "This is one of our favorite tournaments."

The team finished sixth out of 17 teams in last weekend's Lady Paladin Invitational in Greenville, SC.

Catherine Matranga, a senior communication studies major, finished seventh overall, posting a three-round score of 226.

The Horned Frog volleyball team fell to 3-4 in conference play after two losses last weekend against two Top 20 Mountain West Conference opponents.The Frogs lost 3-2 against No. 19 BYU Friday night in Utah, 30-27, 23-30, 26-30, 30-27, 10-15.

Sophomore setter Nirelle Hampton had 53 assists in the match while senior defensive specialist Calli Corley had 26 digs. Junior outside hitter and middle blocker LeMeita Smith contributed 19 kills in the match.

The Frogs also lost Saturday, dropping three games to No. 16 ranked Utah by scores of 30-27, 30-17, 30-14.