Among the seniors receiving diplomas next month, there will be six unique graduates  who have committed the next eight years to the U. S. Army.

Hilary Nimmo, Jennifer Kiner, Charles Coldiron, Alexander Smith, Todd Sackewitz and Jennifer Farland are all members of the Methodist University Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC). In exchange for tuition, a stipend and book money (all paid for by the Army), each has agreed to enter the military as a 2nd Lieutenant and spend at least eight years in active or reserve duty.

Each has their own story, but in each interview they all said the same thing: The Army gives you a different perspective on and appreciation of college opportunities.

 A life can change with a phone call, a plane ticket or a knock at the door.

For someone married to, engaged to or seriously involved with a person in the military, extreme transitions in lifestyle happen at a moment’s notice. A phone call or a knock at the door can mean the unthinkable for the partner of a soldier.

The University of North Carolina and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences examined medical records of 250,000 women married to active-duty soldiers. The study found that women whose husbands were deployed from one to 11 months were more likely to suffer from depressive disorders, sleep disorders, anxiety and acute stress reaction and adjustment disorders.

This study demonstrates that the burden of deployment can severely affect partners as well as soldiers. Having the tools and the ability to manage the stress and emotions of deployment is crucial to overcoming psychological and physical obstacles.

Staci Chiomento, a military spouse for eight years, and a former soldier, recalls the moment when representatives of the U.S. Army knocked on her door to inform her that her husband had been killed in action in Iraq.

There have been three crimes in the last year that smallTALK staff considered worth revisiting. All were committed during the fall semester and have seen a conclusion of some sort. Methodist University administrators have required smallTALK to keep the names of those involved in these cases out of the paper.

In August and September, two female students reported that they were sexually assaulted by male students in two unrelated cases. Campus Police Chief James Philips termed the incidents, “acquaintance assaults,” suggesting that both women knew their accused attackers. In response, the Student Government Association (SGA) and administrators called for peepholes to be installed in the residence halls so that students could see who was at the door before opening it.

Also in August, an attack on a female student by an unidentified man was interrupted by another resident.

December brought a report that chemicals stolen from the Methodist University Chemistry department had turned up by Union County Sheriffs in the car of two Methodist students. This prompted tighter restrictions on access to the chemistry department’s stock room during the spring semester.