Graduate, don't legislate

On Thursday, the ASUW Board of Directors approved the annual legislative agenda, and with it, a selfish and shortsighted directive that opposes credit limits for undergraduate students.

The UW, like many other premier public research institutions, is a competitive school that rejects thousands of perfectly qualified students each year.

For years, the students have continued to debate this controversial UW policy, and now they are directing the ASUW's legislative liaison to lobby for a law against the policy.

The UW's policy is simple, forgiving and good for the state and students. Students must meet with a counselor if they try to register for classes with more than 210 credits and have not filed for graduation.

The 210 credits lets students attend school for nearly five full years without any reprimands.

Without the policy, students would be able to skate through school without any plan while they suck money out of the state and taxpayers -- not to mention waste their parents' money or their own finances.

Additionally, the policy is lenient towards double-majors, students attempting difficult degrees, and transfer students.

We understand that students want to experience classes outside of their major to round out their education, but the credit limit rightly makes students set goals to graduate in a timely fashion and enter the real world.

The Washington State Legislature has a hard enough time doling out money evenly without having college students who have no future plans wishing to continue their indecision at taxpayers' expense.

While some may justly oppose the 210-credit limit policy, a lobbying effort in Olympia will paint a bad image for college students across the country. College students will continue to be perceived as aimless, ambitionless and misguided.

This year's legislative agenda is a finely crafted document with many strong points, but lobbying against UW's credit limit policy is a battle students shouldn't take up.