Four years not the norm

When senior Carrie Owen walked the graduation plank at IU's commencement ceremony Saturday, she was only going through the motions. Owen finished her year just shy of enough credits to graduate. She won't get an actual degree in her religious studies major until she completes one more class this summer. \nOwen knew she wanted to major in religious studies her freshman year. She started taking all the required courses and stuck to using a course guide as her counselor. She never established much of a relationship with her University Division advisor because some of her friends had encountered problems with classes because of bad advice. \n"I knew what I wanted to do, but I felt pressured to take the courses the advisors suggested," Owen said. "I didn't feel like their advice was necessarily any better than my own because they didn't know my tastes. They didn't know what kind of classes and professors I'd like." \nOwen preferred to have freedom with her choices so she could explore different topics that interested her, instead of getting stuck with classes she didn't want. \nRegardless of student interest, all classes are coming at an increasingly high price since tuition has been hiked by roughly 17 percent the past two years.\nOwen's one extra class will be costing her $130 per credit hour (out-of-state is $435), plus an additional $300 for miscellaneous fees like health and transportation. \nStudents are attributing these expensive delays to bad advising, too many irrelevant courses, changing requirements, switching majors, waitlists, courses that are unavailable during different semesters or having to work a part- or full-time job to pay off school.\nThe number of students like Owen, who are encountering problems with graduating on time, is difficult to gauge, since the most updated statistics IU has as a basis for comparison are from 1995. \nTodd Schmitz, director of Reporting and Research for the University Budget Office, said the university is only required to report on a cohort of full-time, beginner students six years after they enroll. This allows the university to observe an expanded view of graduation rates instead of limiting its scope to only the people who get a degree in four years.\n"Using graduation rates as an indicator takes time," Schmitz said. "We don't have any numbers for people who are new and won't graduate for a few years, so we can't extrapolate any information from them."\nWhat Schmitz can extrapolate without numbers is some students have different priorities and activities that don't always contribute to a timely departure. \n"Realistically, the lifestyle of a student in college and what's important to them is not necessarily what their parents want," Schmitz said. "The getting out in four years thing is not always their main objective. Most aren't looking to expedite their time here."\nDespite students having a potentially distracted lifestyle and less than beckoning job market, IU is looking to improve its graduation and retention rates by creating more programs to accommodate students.\nEvelyn Tracy, assistant director of advising, said the goal of the advising office is to provide more personal academic assistance for students. \n"We make a concerted effort on the issue of retention and helping students along the education continuum," Tracy said. "We understand that personal issues, peer pressure and learning how to handle independence all have a big impact on their academics."\nWith the tools and people the university has in place to help students, Schmitz said not being able to graduate on time is becoming a much less valid excuse. \n"My son or daughter is going to have a hard time convincing me of this potential notion that the university's conspiring to keep them here for five to six years," Schmitz said.\nSarah Nodine, an IU alumnus currently working as an industrial sales engineer, is not into making excuses for her late departure. She is emphatically in favor of students taking extra time and extra classes to give them a longer time to fully enjoy their life in college. \n"Staying a fifth year was the best decision I ever made," Nodine said. "You only get to experience college once. You get to do a variety of activities, and you meet some of the greatest people"