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Taking the Four-Year Pledge
Despite the fact that the bachelor's degree in the United States is designed to be completed in four years, the actual percentage of students nationwide that graduate within that time frame is a distressingly low 37 percent. This has serious ramifications: Students who drop out still carry loan debt with no diploma to show for it, institutions are burdened with the costs of students who do not finish their academic programs, and parents and taxpayers have to foot much of the bill. But one university in Georgia is trying to reverse this trend on its own campus. On Monday, Mercer University unveiled a new initiative called the Mercer Four-Year Pledge, in which participating students carefully map out their academic programs with the help of advisors in order to graduate in four years. And most notably, if students follow the stipulations of the program but are still unable to graduate on time, then the university will cover the additional costs of attendance. Trustees should take note of this promising new effort in both controlling college costs and improving students' academic discipline.
Posted by Sandra E. Czelusniak on February 18, 2009 at February 18, 2009 11:38 AM
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