Iowa’s favorite required Gen Ed recently contributed to some un-success in the career of one unlucky student.
Fourth-year Classics major Ulysses Longbook had aspirations to become a professor at Stanford and had the CV to back it up. Longbook boasted an impressive 4.1 GPA, was the president of the “Epic Epic Poetry Club,” and showcased immense passion for the field.
That list of achievements, plus a sizable donation to the University courtesy of Longbook’s father, was not enough to offset their freshman year discrepancy, as the module labeled “Stage 3: How To Check Out Books At the Library” was left uncompleted, leaving Longbook ineligible to graduate from the University of Iowa.
During their years of study, Ulysses Longbook had checked out 145 items from the University Library system, but by failing to submit the survey it was impossible to prove to CLAS that they grasped a comprehensive understanding of the Dewey Decimal system, or of which slot you’re supposed to return books to.
