Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for November 13, 2012

He beat Zonker in slackerdom!

Maybe he could even wear a Muppet suit and be Faculty Mascot!

There’s no life sweeter than that of a 34 year old college sophomore- Matthew McConaughey in character as David Wooderson on SNL.

“… he has to keep his grades up so no slacking.”

No, down! At Walden slacking comes summa cum laude.

Oddly enough, when I went to college there was a guy who was 32-36 during my time but he only took a few classes a semster (all he could afford, I know he worked part time at least for some of the time I was there) Last I’d heard, he’d have enough credits to graduate a year after I did.

Wait til Zonker finds out about this!

Awesome, whether he realizes it or not, Trudeau has created two absolutely perfect icons for today’s Democrats. The mooching slacker on a fully-funded, lifelong gravy-train, and the narcissistic faker with delusions of talent and relevance. The irony is almost too rich for words.

Nice!

Good to see he has a secure future. That’s all anyone can ask for

Roger Zelazny created this over 35 years ago in his protagonist Fred in “Doorways in the Sand”;

“Fred receives a generous stipend from his cryogenically-frozen uncle as long as he is a full-time student and has not received an academic degree, which he has put off for 13 years by changing majors repeatedly”

(Thank you Wikipedia)

Plot is a bit earlier than that… Doctor in the House, a British book and film from the early 1950s, about medical students, had a character Richard Grimsdyke (played by Kenneth Moore), who received an annuity while training as a doctor, so he repeatedly failed his final exam to remain a student. IIRC (Wikipedia doesn’t say) the point was that he had to only just fail so that he could retake, and he makes a mistake and accidentally passes…

I knew a guy like this at the University of Oklahoma. He just kept changing majors before he got enough credits to graduate. For all I know he could still be there and that was twenty years ago.

Given his student loans he can’t afford to be graduated.

Tokyo, I guess you’re another republican that thinks higher education is elitist.

I knew a guy like Zipper when I went to school, lo, these many years ago. Even looked like Zipper; except his beard was red.

It’s all very simple. All Zonk has to do is sign up for a series of classes, fail all of them and then the next semester retake the same classes again, vowing to pass them but never actually pass them! Repeating the cycle over and over again. His GPA would be zero but I’m sure that Walden has no probation policy which would require Zonk to maintain a cumulative GPA above zero.

Those were the days.I remember Physics As A Liberal Art 101.

I actually know somebody like this. He inherited enough money so he doesn’t have to work, so he went back to school and he’s spent his life getting degrees.

Walden must not have any graduate programs. A sadly sizable number of graduate students do just as he has done for decades. It was always a fear of mine as well when I was in grad school.

On a more serious note, many students graduate with a college degree in a discipline with no hope of finding a suitable career and with an enormous debt. And, still, universities are raising tuition fees and students keep coming. In the meantime, there is a demand for tradespeople.

I think that many of us secretly fantasized of having enough money, and no responsibilities, so that we could become “professional” students. Learning is a life-long process but , as we mature, we realize that the education comes from life experience, not just the university.

Hey, I was a perpetual student until I was about 28. If Fibromyalgia hadn’t cut my career short, I had planned on getting a Ph.D. Then who knows how many more degrees I might have acquired? =^_____^=

I wanted to be a lifetime student, and always be taking classes and learning.

Beats a 9-5 job!!! :P :P :P

“There needs to be a version of math similar to “Physics for Non-Majors”.”

Doing Math without the Math would be difficult to imagine, but a course in Logic would be useful for anybody.

I don’t know, I think ‘The Eternal Student’ would be a good horror flick. Sitting in class forever. Sharpening pencils Downloading the latest study apps. Never ending exams. The sound of echoing footsteps in the hall. That sounds like hell to me.

For a few years, I had tuition support at work, after my boss asked “What’ll you be doing in five years if you don’t?” Then I was deployed a couple months up to the observatory (troubleshooting the flight instrument at arms’ length) and blew out a class. Next job, I couldn’t afford the up-front costs, and the next, boss wanted me there for testing, not off at school. By now, CSULA is insisting people graduate and get out of the way, with ridiculous fees and doing the austerity death spiral. Depends on your goals, like many things, but I enjoyed (most of) my time there.

Zip’s a maker – not a taker! He’ll be making unforgivable student loan payments, fees and penalties for-freekin-ever. Investment in a country’s future through affordable higher education happens only in advancing countries.

Gawd, that sounds like me, after five years of 1 to 1 classes at the Apple Store I think it’s about time that I make up my username and password on my own. They ought to give me the Steve Jobs award.

Revered icon remains better than reviled neo-con.

Here’s a quote from “the Wiki”:

“Streleski was in his 19th year pursuing his doctorate in the mathematics department.”

At Stanford University, a few miles south of San Francisco on the Peninsula.

Which one? Zipper? Or Streleski?

“The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” —Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell.

They failed. But they remain obstinate. Just as they did in their belief that Romney was going to beat Obama.

So, to answer your question, if they fail to learn from this history, they will remain stupidly obstinate in the face of such an economic miracle as you point out.

IOW they will fail to make it “fit in to Obama destroying the economy”. The Tea Party has made them stupid beyond measure.

Here’s another stupid quote:

“The purpose of the minority is to become the majority.”

— House Rep. Pete Sessions, head of the National Republican Campaign Committee.

Such obstinately stupid thinking helped Obama, Warren, and all the rest to boot their behinds behind the moon. Reason: the American electorate just isn’t that stupid. They (we) want Congress to GET SOMETHING DONE, not just block everything hoping for an election that boots Democrats’ behinds behind the moon.

Tokyo Tengu:You nailed it!!But, when they retire, where does the money come from?Medicade, I guess.

Lifelong learning is great. I got my Ph.D. at 50 and went back for another MSW. I just recently got my full license and work as a psychotherapist. I’ve worked almost all of the time I was in school and all my college fees are paid in full.

That’s similar to what they said about FDR. Do the logic.

It’s history.

Seems Zipper has found himself a secure, comfortable home.

As a European, I can assure you that Obama is still some way to the right of a European centre-right politician (we would never accept such a poor public health insurance system, nor a time-limit to the safety net for those out of work); and he is certainly nowhere near a Hollande-style French Euro-socialist model.