from the Oregonian - story on Johnny Lechner
Lechner, 29, is a legendary student at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He's been attending college for --- and I am not making this up --- 12 years. He was supposed to graduate in May 2006, but withdrew his application a week before the ceremony because he wants to do the one thing he hasn't yet done in college: study abroad. So he's going for No. 13, apparently.
A lot of people are calling Lechner a loser, but man, the guy is semi-brilliant, no?
Among the things you need to know about Lechner:
--- He could graduate with degrees in Communications, Health, Education, Women's Studies, and Theater.... if he wanted to.
--- He started college in 1994, when his current girlfriend was in the fourth grade.
--- Lechner ran for student body president last spring and lost to a political science major by a vote of 511 to 281.
--- He was reportedly offered a job by National Lampoon and turned it down, saying, "If I wanted a job, I would have graduated."
--- He has a website,
www.johnnylechner.com
--- He has appeared on "Late Show" with David Letterman, "Good Morning America" and other shows, describing a boisterous campus lifestyle of beer and merrymaking.
--- He has signed with the William Morris Agency, which is marketing a reality television series based on his life.
--- He'll pay $9,800 in tuition this year... but only because the Wisconsin Board of Regents imposed a surcharge last year virtually doubling tuition for students who exceed 165 credits. (Mr. Lechner has 242.) Wisconsinites call it the Johnny Lechner rule.
--- This from his website, "...it's not all toga parties and keg stands, but don't get me wrong, those things are happening."
--- Said Michelle Eigenberger, an editor at the campus newspaper: "It's getting old. For the sanity of the rest of the campus, we want him to get out of here."
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