The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

SIUC students: get in and get out

SIUC is a vortex; it sucks people in and is difficult to escape. Ask yourself how you are being encouraged to graduate within your program's conventional timeframe (four years, three years, five years).

An estimated 78 percent of SIU's total student body receives financial aid (to include graduate and doctoral students). My view is that grants and loans don't always push students to complete their degrees 'on time,' partially because financial aid acclimates its recipients to a comfortable federal and state welfare teat.

Yes, many students hold part-time or full-time jobs, which is a significant factor.

However, do students receiving solid financial aid need to be working? Several variables might explain why many students work: credit card payments, car payments, cell phones, bursar balances, children, entertainment consumption, familial poverty or savings. Some students drop half of their classes eight weeks into the semester, when the mandatory financial aid repayment date ends and get to keep the money.

What is going on? Why does it so often take undergraduates well over five years to graduate? With an average workload of 13 hours per fall and spring semester - plus three summer schools - an undergraduate leaves in four years ... particularly if majors are changed less than six times. I have seen PhD students (holding TA positions) take approximately ten years to graduate, when four or five should be sufficient. SIUC administrators and financial planners must love the sticky web that keeps us here. As an example of an early departure, a friend of mine, Rob, completed a full business degree in three years without attending summer school. Rob averaged 20 hours per semester and returned to Chicago after completing his degree, already paying off his debt and trying to make it happen.

What are we doing? And how much debt do we plan on having? The SIU catalogue lacks the major called Professional Student. Some of you undergrads have been students for so long you can only imagine continuing on into grad school. If you want to continue your education, you have to climb the rungs (undergrad, grad, doc). Stagnation on a single rung gets you nowhere. It's not always comfortable, but cutting the umbilical cord is part of the deal. Move on. Earn some resources. Don't be motionless. Get famous. And get out.

William C. Weston
senior, German and sociology

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