Students with Dozens of Credits but No Degree
Tribune Editorial 10-26-06
One of slackerdom's greatest refuges - to keep attending college indefinitely while deftly avoiding amassing credits in a way that could resemble receiving a degree - is in trouble at Arizona's three state universities. As the Tribune's Ryan Gabrielson reported Saturday, in 2005 the Arizona Legislature passed a law decreasing state funding for the universities by commensurate amounts for every undergraduate student with, as of next year, 145 credits or more and no degree. A student can receive a bachelor's degree with 130 credits.
On Friday, the Arizona Board of Regents, which governs the three universities, approved policies that would more efficiently point students toward degrees, reported Gabrielson, who found that university officials have only identified only 183 undergraduates statewide who are in this situation, 127 of whom are at Arizona State University.
Some sort of surcharge will be assessed on such students to make up for the loss of state funding, although the regents haven't set the amount, Gabrielson reported.
The Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, Wis., reported in May about a 29-year-old perennial student who this fall was to begin his 13th consecutive year as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
According to the State Journal, Johnny Lechner doesn't fit the slacker stereotype. He isn't much of a party goer, doesn't date any fellow students younger than 22 and, after meeting him, university Chancellor Martha Saunders told the newspaper that is "very bright, animated, clearly articulate."
Yet he also has 265 credits, the State Journal said, reporting that he was on the verge of graduation in May when he realized that he had never studied abroad and now wants to enroll in his school's International Education Program.
Lechner is paying for his choice. The State Journal reported that he is paying Wisconsin's surcharge for such students, dubbed the "slacker tax" that totals to double the usual tuition. It looks like additional fees are also in the offing in Arizona. But we agree with Saunders, that students such as Lechner are talking a seat in a student body that should belong to someone else.
We look forward to the price of slacking at Arizona's public four-year schools soon going up to the point where for some students it may finally be advantageous to - dare we say it? - go out and get a job.
| 
