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The Real World Can Wait (11 Years In College, 28 Year Old Doesn't Want To Graduate)
Wisconsin State Journal ^ | April 7, 2005 | Doug Erickson

Posted on 04/07/2005 9:57:22 AM PDT by MisterRepublican

WHITEWATER - At the off-campus house Johnny Lechner shares with three other UW- Whitewater students, the stairway to his attic bedroom is lined with photos dating back to his freshman year.

Lechner has lost track of many of the buddies that posed with him at these long- ago fraternity parties and Homecoming parades. They have moved on to new lives - careers, wives, children, mortgages - and that's just not Lechner's scene.

"I could have - should have - graduated many years ago, but I keep passing on the real world's invitation," said Lechner, 28, who is in his 11th year as a student in the University of Wisconsin System, the last 10 at UW-Whitewater. He's taken a full course load every semester except the current one, in which he's taking seven credits.

Lechner has completed 234 college credits, about 100 more than needed to graduate and so many that he's now paying the so-called "slacker tax."

System students who exceed 165 total credit hours - or 30 more than their degree programs require, whichever is higher - pay double tuition. The Board of Regents instituted the surcharge this school year as a none-too-subtle hint that a state-subsidized education has its limits.

The slacker tax doubles full- time tuition at UW-Whitewater (12 to 18 credits) to $4,816 a semester. With the surcharge, Lechner is paying $2,810 per semester for his seven-credit load.

It is a measure of Lechner's campus notoriety that many classmates call the slacker tax "The Johnny Lechner Rule." While he doesn't mind being known as "that guy who has been in college forever," Lechner declines to take credit for the Regents' sweeping policy change.

(Excerpt) Read more at madison.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; US: Wisconsin
KEYWORDS: academia; cheeseheads; highereducation
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To: Darth Reagan

ping


81 posted on 04/07/2005 11:21:04 AM PDT by marblehead17 (I love it when a plan comes together.)
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To: jude24
I spent 6 years at a 2-year college, but then I had the G.I. Bill and a large family.

Am I the only one that sees a problem with post #10. I had a brother do the same thing, 3 junior college degrees on the GI bill. It made me sick. I constantly pointed out to him that he needed to thank me for my tax dollars. He wouldn't and we don't speak today.

82 posted on 04/07/2005 11:28:47 AM PDT by phil1750 (Love like you've never been hurt;Dance like nobody's watching;PRAY like it's your last prayer)
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To: Billthedrill
It's cheaper for the taxpayers to have him remain a professional student than become a professional politican.
83 posted on 04/07/2005 11:31:42 AM PDT by Boston Blackie
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To: phil1750

I think you're assuming that in those 6 years, he obtained three associate's degrees. That would certainly be excessive. If he had a large family, it's far more likely that he took one or two classes at a time to get an associate's eventually. No problem with that at all.


84 posted on 04/07/2005 11:32:39 AM PDT by jude24 (The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then gets elected and proves it.)
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To: MisterRepublican

"many of the buddies.... have moved on to new lives - careers, wives, children, mortgages - and that's just not Lechner's scene "

REAL LIFE is not pretty....


85 posted on 04/07/2005 11:33:19 AM PDT by traumer
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To: MisterRepublican
LOL! But the average stay these years is 5 or 6 years.

It's pathetic.

86 posted on 04/07/2005 11:34:10 AM PDT by Aquinasfan (Isaiah 22:22, Rev 3:7, Mat 16:19)
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To: fso301

I had a fraternity brother who was a professional student. After getting out of the Air Force, he got his BA, then his Masters, then PHD, then Law degree.

To make ends meet, he was a TA, then professor. Through it all, he remained staunchly republican.

Looking back, not a bad way to go through life.


87 posted on 04/07/2005 11:34:20 AM PDT by Francis McClobber
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To: MisterRepublican
"Some girls say it's weird that he's still here, but the bottom line is they all want him," Zinda said. "Everyone knows him and there's a certain excitability about being friends with and dating Johnny Lechner."

BINGO!!!!

Here is why Johnny can't leave!

88 posted on 04/07/2005 11:36:14 AM PDT by Dr._Joseph_Warren
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To: COBOL2Java
if I could afford it, could probably have spent my whole life in academe.

You have to figure out how to get paid for going to school - find the right major. I have a full ride, plus 2 additional scholarships for a PhD (this is after a career as a lawyer). I'd be broke if I was a history major, but in a tech-related field, they throw the money at me. I am one of those people who enjoy school and figured out a way to stay in academe and get paid for it.

Being a doctoral student also gives me plenty of FReeping time!

89 posted on 04/07/2005 11:36:23 AM PDT by radiohead
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To: MD_Willington_1976
he isn't hurting anyone is he?

Depends on school policy.

When I was fighting my classes, the closer to graduation one was, the higher their registration priority. It meant that those lower on the totem pole got the their pick of the left over classes, times, and profs. Made it impossible to get a decent class schedule that allowed for maintaining a consistent work schedule; and it also meant being stuck with the whack-job profs.

If nothing else, he is warming a chair someone with serious intent could have had.

Another consideration is just how good any of his courses are for graduation, grad school, or even upper division classes.

We had to have completed prerequisites within a time frame based on 'normal matriculation' which meant introductory or Lower Division classes more than 3 or 4 years prior were considered 'stale'. They had to be repeated before being allowed to register in follow up courses.

I realize a lot has changed in 40 years, but it looks like some things never do; we had professional students, too.

90 posted on 04/07/2005 11:36:54 AM PDT by ApplegateRanch (Only those without honor eat dead food, rather than making every meal a fight!)
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To: jude24

Jude, He DID attain 3 associate degrees in 5 1/2 years.


91 posted on 04/07/2005 11:38:28 AM PDT by phil1750 (Love like you've never been hurt;Dance like nobody's watching;PRAY like it's your last prayer)
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To: phil1750

Your brother may have, but the poster in #10 may not have.


92 posted on 04/07/2005 11:39:45 AM PDT by jude24 (The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then gets elected and proves it.)
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To: rellimpank

He's like a real life Van Wilder, thats pretty cool...


93 posted on 04/07/2005 11:41:45 AM PDT by GoShow
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To: Modernman

I think that guys like lack the foresight to consider things like the effect on their credit scores.

They are fated to eke out lives as marginal people, and are doomed to suck the govt. sugar-ti**y for life.


94 posted on 04/07/2005 11:42:26 AM PDT by conservativeharleyguy (Democrats: Over 60 million fooled daily!)
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To: MisterRepublican

Part of the 8 to 15-year undergraduate B.A. program phenomenon is not entirely just because kids are lazy and flakes. It also has something to do with the incredibly disorganized, chaotic, and absurd nature of the design of college and university curricula. A student can "float" on a campus for years and never find a sane rational adult who is in any way "in charge." Bureaucracy, bureaucracy, bureaucracy. The other thing is colleges and universities are trying to do TOO MUCH. To be ALL THINGS to everybody. They end up doing no ONE THING very well at all.


95 posted on 04/07/2005 11:47:32 AM PDT by HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
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To: MisterRepublican

If my sister in law weren't already married to a loser, she would try to land this one, I'm sure.


96 posted on 04/07/2005 11:48:04 AM PDT by WV Mountain Mama (My kids are super cool, I hear they get that from their mom!)
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To: MisterRepublican

Who's paying? If him he is sad,if mom n dad then they are


97 posted on 04/07/2005 11:49:34 AM PDT by skaterboy (My baby is an American badass)
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To: MisterRepublican
I have a niece who was the same way, she finally got help, it was from abuse, physical and mental, from her Mother all her life from childhood till now, she finally got control of her life at about 50, she is now 59. She no longer even talks to her Mother, has a brother who is 47, a high ranking officer in the army and still completely under his Mother's control, she even broke up his marriage, his daughter, who he has custody of has been under her grandmother's influence and is just like her.
98 posted on 04/07/2005 11:52:41 AM PDT by lolhelp
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To: Billthedrill

"He's one of those people in life who actually has the guts to do what makes him happy," Koskinen said. "He's one of the happiest people in the entire world, and if you reach that level of happiness, why not keep doing it?"

Glad to see hes met everyone in the world and hey if the guy wants to stay in college and mooch off mom n dad then its rather pathetic but hey it aint my money


99 posted on 04/07/2005 11:53:22 AM PDT by skaterboy (My baby is an American badass)
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To: Junior

So mom n dad are paying...something tells me they voted for Kerry


100 posted on 04/07/2005 11:54:17 AM PDT by skaterboy (My baby is an American badass)
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