The Towerlight, November 30, 2000

tl20001130-000 "Thursday www.thetowerlight.com 11ht Published twice-weekly by students of Towson University /30/00 WMJF goes from 61 to 16 3 Students prefer TSiNET system ���?��������?� L.aumea-j 5 The Nutcracker' comes to life Tigers get first win, 74-62 0 17 Departments News 3 Police Blotter 7 Nation 7 A&E 9 In a Theater Near You.10 The High Road 14 Wrasslin' Weekly 15 Sports 17 Fast Break 17 Punt, Pass & Pick 18 Op/Ed. 22 Students taking longer to graduate, study shows Jeff Bowdoin The Towerhght Many Towson students find themselves taking many classes and searching through the coursebook for a final GenEd, as they take longer to graduate. Numbers show 5-plus years the norm, not the exception, as students take longer to graduate Todd Jacobson The Towerlight When Aaron Reinhart was a freshman, Richmond Hall was Greek housing, Tower D was a study dorm and the year was 1992. The super senior still hasn't officially graduated. He's partied a little bit, stud-ied a little bit and procrastinated a little bit, but has generally had a good time learning and living while accumulating 138 credits. The 25-year-old biology major is still one GenEd class short of a diploma, but he has no regrets regarding his eight-and-a-half-year college marathon that is set to end next semester. ""Taking my time and realiz-ing what you learn at school is at least as valuable as the educa-tional experience you get,"" Reinhart said, who actually walked across the Towson Center stage in May during commencement but received a letter later in the summer informing him of his predica-ment. ""Being able to grow up on my own time and not be forced into the real world was a lot more valuable than having a degree."" Though most students' col-lege careers don't last as long as Reinhart's (and he only took one semester off), more and more students are spending more than the typical four years on campuses nationwide. At Towson, the six-year grad-uation rate for the freshman class of 1993 was 62 percent, and only 27.3 percent of that group of students completed their col-lege experience in four years. The numbers mesh with a nationwide trend that has moved toward allowing stu-dents a reasonable amount of time to navigate through col-lege. The freshmen entering four-year public schools in Maryland in 1995 graduated at a rate of 29.9 percent, according to statistics from the Maryland Higher Education Commission � the best rate since the com-mission began following the trend in 1978. Towson's four-year gradua-tion rate is nearly identical to the See GRADUATE, page 4 Today High 47 Low 30 Friday High 42 Low 29 Saturday High 42 Low 20 Sunday High 43 Low 26 "