Posted on 05/10/2006 11:56:47 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
WHITEWATER, WI (AP) -- His 12 years as an undergraduate have made Johnny Lechner a celebrity of sorts, so why not go for 13?
Lechner was expected to graduate at last from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater this spring, but instead he withdrew his application for graduation five days before commencement.
"I realized that if I went one more year, I could study abroad," Lechner said. "That's one thing I haven't done."
Lechner has had his story told in newspapers and network television shows, not to mention campus publications across the nation that have picked up stories from UW-Whitewater's student newspaper, The Royal Purple.
By this spring he had completed 234 college credits, or about 100 more than needed to graduate, and was taking seven more.
That qualified him for the so-called "slacker tax," instituted this school year by the UW Board of Regents to help cover the state subsidy for students who stay long past the usual four of five years to earn an undergraduate degree.
It calls for students who exceed 165 total credit hours or 30 more than their degree programs require - whichever is higher - to pay double tuition.
The 29-year-old Lechner, a Waukesha native, said he didn't start out to be a long-term student, but it just developed once he realized how much fun he was having at college.
Michelle Eigenberger, an editor at The Royal Purple, said Lechner may have achieved celebrity status, but most students are tired of it.
"It's getting old," she said. "For the sanity of the rest of the campus, we want him to get out of here."
What a dork.
The worst of all is him bragging about 18, 19 and 20-year old girls 'falling all over him' in bars. First of all, what are the 18, 19 and 20-year olds doing in bars(legal age 21), and secondly, how much of a loser do these girls have to be to want this loser? If one of my daughters brought home a boyfriend like this, he would be shown the door pronto and I would have a LONG talk with that daughter. who is ever going to want to have anything to do with this perpetual party boy (employers or women)?
Wonder what his degree will be in.
Pucktard.
Why only an undergrad? That's how I lived after I got divorced.
Gee, wonder what his political affiliation is.
He could have stayed in school all that time AND had a freaking PHD by now. Does he not even have a bachelor's?
What a maroon.
I'd like to hear what the members of his original entering class have to say about him now.
"As long as you're an undergrad, you can live in the crappy apartment with the industrial spool coffee table and bookshelves made out of cinderblocks and sleep on a mattress on the floor, and that's okay."
If it wasn't for my wife I'd be living in a trailer on the Tennessee River next to the boat dock with beanbags in the living room and a Futon on the floor.
Years ago I remember reading a Roger Zelazny book (my fav sci fi author) about a man who got aupported by a legacy in a will while going to college. So he never graduated, being sure to stay a few credits short in every major.
After many years, the faculty started to conspire to change the requirements to trick him into graduating. Evenutally he was down to courses like anthropological pottery.
We used to say guys like this went to get their BUM degree -- Bachelor of Undeclared Major...
If the fishing were good, that doesn't sound all that bad.
Doorways in the Sand, good book.
LOL, that was the name of it! I'll have to go back and reread it again.
Mom should kick him out of the basement and make him get a job.
Hey, I've still got those bookshelves!
But these days they hold boxes of ammunition.
Basketweaving - that was the course I was trying to remember.
Found part of a review from Amazon:
We meet him (the protagonist, Fred) as he drops into the third-floor office of his latest advisor---through the window of course. Fred has gone through many advisors in his twelve-year stint as an undergraduate--his late uncle's estate will only support him up to the moment when he is awarded a degree--but this particular advisor seems to have a grudge against him. He thinks he has Fred trapped in a schedule that will force him to graduate.
Fred manages to escape the dread specter of graduation one more time by signing up for field work in Australia, a literature course on troubadours, and two hours credit for advanced basket weaving.
This story was making me think of the book too but I couldn't quite remember the name, then I saw your post and I HAD to go poking around Amazon and remember. I've been re-reading some Zelazny lately (that's the sad part about dead authors, can't do anything but re-read) and might have to put that in the pile.
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