Lazy by Nature

From the day he enrolled last summer at Memphis State College, 23-year-old John Robert Starr appeared to be a model student. A shaggy-haired ex-G.I. with a wife and two children, Starr managed to get As and Bs in all his courses. He was also sports editor of the college annual, wrote a column for the college paper, covered high-school sports for the Memphis Commercial Appeal, and on Sundays held down a job as a reporter for the United Press. The dean's office thought his load was a heavy one, but saw no particular reason to ask Starr to ease it.

Then, last fortnight, the office began to hear some strange rumors about Student Starr--so strange, in fact, that at first the dean could not believe them. But just as a precaution, he called Starr in and asked him pointblank if the rumors were true. Yes, Starr admitted, they were: ever since he had been at State, he had also been a full-time student at Southwestern College, four miles away.

There, studying under the G.I. bill, he was well into his senior year, and his record was every bit as good as it was at State. He was making As and Bs, was sports editor of the annual, wrote a column for the paper, covered campus news for the Appeal. The only trouble with Southwestern, said Starr, was that it didn't keep him busy enough: "There were so many subjects I wanted to learn about. And being lazy by nature, I thought it would be good self-discipline to sign up for them." When Southwestern could not give him all the courses he wanted, he had simply enrolled at State, paying the tuition out of his own pocket.

Neither college suspected his double life. Neither knew that promptly at 8:30 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Starr would start out at Southwestern, attend courses until noon, then motorcycle over to State for classes until 3, or to one of his many jobs. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays he reversed the procedure, spending the morning at State and most afternoons at Southwestern.

As the months passed, Starr seemed to thrive under his double routine, even though it meant working far into the night and often over a bewildering assortment of courses--Greek for Southwestern, business law for State, biology for Southwestern, mythology for State. Meanwhile, he happily pursued his extracurricular jobs. He never lost a pound, never appeared tired, and his work never fell off. Last week, Memphis State decided that college policy could no longer permit such goings-on, and Starr reluctantly resigned from the campus. But that did not mean that he intended to change his habits much. "I've got to find something to do on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays now that I've left State," he said last week. "I'll just go crazy with all this time on my hands."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.