We live in very interesting times indeed, and that might not be a good thing.

As practically every news outlet in the galaxy will tell you, the economy is not doing so hot. It’s at the point where our wonderful University has to do some not-so-wonderful things in order to deal with deep budget cuts. And that’s just in our little corner of the world — there really is bad news, more bad news and even worse news coming every day regarding banks, car companies and the housing market.

And this is on top of all our other problems: two wars abroad, a decaying infrastructure at home and a host of programs and agencies in between that need to be fixed or scrapped.

So there should be plenty of interesting discussion on ways to fix the economy (for starters), right?

Wrong.

During spring break, newspapers like the New York Times came out with fascinating discussions about how Barack Obama may be getting gray hairs, whether Michelle Obama can have bare arms and who the real leader of the GOP is.

The importance of this information is so profound — it actually is so profound and beyond me that I am unable to accept it as the true issue.

Or I’m unable to accept this news because I DO NOT CARE about Barack Obama’s hair or Michelle Obama’s arms. Regarding the actual leader of the GOP thing, I’m actually interested — I want to see a cage match between radio pundit Rush Limbaugh and GOP Chairman (or “chairman”) Michael Steele.

By the way, I’m putting Student Government on notice: if we had cage fights instead of debates, more people would show up.

Hand-to-hand combat aside, there really are big issues out there, ranging from the global and national news about the economy going down the toilet to the local news and gossip about the economy going down the toilet. Instead of focusing on the tabloid-quality nonsense about hair color or bare arms, we could try to come up with solutions to our economic problems.

Even if you don’t care about the credit markets, the bank bailouts and the government’s budget, you should at least worry about the unemployment rate or the University’s budget. This stuff could affect when you graduate and, upon said graduation, whether you can find somewhat solid, long-term employment.

Unlike the federal budget or any of the other 5 million economic problems out there, the University’s budget cuts are pretty easy to follow — there’s a nice link on the University’s Web site that leads you to Budget Central (http://www.fis.ncsu.edu/rm/budget_central/). The information is mostly there, all in one easily accessible place, and there’s even an online suggestion box. The facts are there, and, unless you are some kind of technophobic Luddite, accessible — get cracking.

But the University can do a lot more. Members of the budget committee can take the initiative and sit in on classes or go out and interact with students and faculty. This will give those responsible for deciding what to cut from the budget direct feedback regarding what classes or departments aren’t vital or are underperforming.

So if you don’t see the provost or a dean on campus trying to see firsthand what programs work on campus, give one of them a call or e-mail. With registration around the corner, you do not want to find out that one class you need to graduate isn’t available. We all need to make it clear to the budget committee what we think — get to it!