Saturday, Feb. 21, 1998 | 3:35 a.m.
SUN REPORTER Jerry Fink contributed to this story.
UNLV senior Eric Coyle is taking more courses and pursuing more bachelor's degrees than anyone in campus history, but there is a question whether this feat is a credit to higher education.
The university is buzzing because Coyle is taking 64 credit hours this semester, more than four times the normal course load for a full-time student. That load plus his plans to graduate in August with five separate bachelor's degrees are both UNLV records that could stand for decades.
While some of his awestruck professors are speaking in superlatives, other academicians question Coyle's ability to grasp so much material. Defenders of the 23-year-old say he is a once-in-a-generation student who has proven he can do the work. Skeptics argue that what he has been allowed to do raises questions about UNLV's academic standards.
UNLV Registrar Jeff Halverson is among the awestruck.
"From where I sit, it's phenomenal," he said. "I can't imagine how he's doing it because it's such a tremendous load. He's doing half of a bachelor's degree in a single semester. That's phenomenal."
Wayne Becraft, executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers in Washington, D.C., is among the disbelievers.
"I've never heard of anyone enrolling for 64 credits in one term or receiving five degrees at one time," Becraft said. "You have no time to study if you go to school all the time. How in the world can he possibly be doing that?
"I'm having trouble imagining how someone can get all the work done, and get everything out of a course."
A Seattle native, Coyle is gambling that his course load and multiple degrees will help him get into one of the nation's top law schools this fall. Among the 14 schools on his list are Harvard, Yale, Georgetown and Stanford. He then hopes to return to Las Vegas and serve as a prosecutor.
"I have to do something to set myself apart from other students," Coyle said. "They'll see I've accomplished a course load that few people have attempted. I don't think I'm very special, but this is something I want more than anything in the world. I want to go to a real good law school."
His accomplishment already has been overshadowed by his allegation that UNLV Provost Douglas Ferraro cursed and grabbed him Feb. 4 in the latter's office. Coyle said Ferraro feared that a planned Rebel Yell campus newspaper story about the six-year student would make it appear the university's classes were too easy.
Ferraro denied attacking Coyle but declined comment pending the outcome of a state attorney general's office investigation into the student's complaint.
"It's best to have the formal process play itself out," Ferraro said.
It takes 124 credits to earn a bachelor's degree at UNLV. Since students must take 30 more credits for each additional degree, Coyle needs 244 to earn his five diplomas. He'll have 231 credits by the end of this semester, and plans to complete his work this summer.
Those 231 credits are misleading, however. He'll actually have taken 298 credits worth of course work by the end of this semester, but 67 of those credits represent repeated classes. UNLV, like most universities, allows students to repeat courses, but they only get to count those credits once.
Though both attempts show up on the student's transcript, only the grade received in the repeated class is figured into the overall grade-point average. Through last year, Coyle took 20 repeat courses, improving his grade each time. He's taking two more repeat courses this semester, but they represent only six of his 64 credits.
Jack Warner, vice chancellor of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education in Boston, questioned the difficulty of Coyle's course work.
"If he's able to pull it off, in some ways it isn't a good statement about the rigor of the courses he's in," Warner said. "But he must be doing something right. If he's able to do it, in one sense you say more power to him, but it would certainly raise questions about the (academic) standards."
But Coyle said he doesn't think his course load means UNLV is too easy.
"They didn't seem too easy when I first started taking classes," he said. "I struggled when I first came to school."
Coyle didn't exactly set UNLV on fire when he first arrived in 1992. He began as a C student, with a grade-point average barely above 2.0 on a 4-point scale. During his first four years, he never took more than 16 credits a semester. In three of his semesters, he took only nine credits, three below the minimum required to qualify as a full-time student.
He credited political science professor Jerry Simich with giving him his break. In late 1996, Simich helped Coyle land an internship in the Washington office of Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev. Coyle handled correspondence with constituents and performed legislative legwork for the senator.
"I always wanted to work as a lawyer and go into politics, so it was a dream to go to D.C.," Coyle said. "Before that I never thought I could go to a good law school. I figured I would just go to any law school that would take me."
Simich viewed his student as a loveable guy who once dyed his hair green. But the professor also saw Coyle as a bright and energetic individual, the type who could thrive in an internship.
"Internships are a very good way for our students to gain resume experience," Simich said. "It gives them experience in the real world so it makes the education more relevant."
That fall Coyle took only 12 credits, including the internship and independent study, but he registered straight A's.
Bryan spokeswoman Karen Kirchgasser said Coyle did a good job for the senator. She said Bryan also is impressed with his drive toward multiple degrees.
"I hope our internship program has that effect on everyone," Kirchgasser said. "We're glad the internship program gave him motivation to pursue his academic career."
When Coyle returned to campus in the spring of 1997 he loaded up on credits. He also yearned to improve his overall grade-point average in order to become better qualified for a top law school.
"I felt it was time to get focused and motivated," he said. "Lack of motivation was my problem for the first couple years in school."
UNLV students in their sophomore through senior years who wish to take more than 18 credits in a semester are required to complete an overload petition that must be approved by faculty advisers.
Coyle gained permission last spring to take 22 credits, which he completed with a 3.45 grade-point average. An informal survey of academicians around the country indicated that most universities also allow overloads, and that 22 credits is about the norm for such petitions.
Last summer, however, Coyle's load skyrocketed to 41 credits, which he completed with a 3.8 GPA. Those 41 credits are somewhat misleading because the summer semester is divided into three mini-sessions. Instead of taking all 41 credits at once, they were spread over those sessions. Still, he was in classrooms from early morning to mid-evening.
Based on Coyle's summer performance, his academic advisers were convinced he could handle the extra course work. In fall, Coyle completed 44 credits, and landed on the dean's honor list with a 3.91 GPA. Entering this semester, he carried a cumulative 3.56 GPA, which is a B plus. He anticipates climbing to an overall A minus by the end of this semester.
Sociology professor Frederick Preston, his department's undergraduate coordinator, was the initial faculty adviser to approve Coyle's overload petition this semester. Preston said he rejects such petitions at least half the time but saw no problem approving Coyle's request, given the student's prior track record with heavy course loads.
"He has an IQ well beyond most people," Preston said. "He's a guy that, if I were to guess, would be nearly off the scale."
Preston had extra insight into Coyle because the student happens to be a pretty fair poker player. Coyle, who has played Texas Hold 'em for mid-level stakes in Strip casinos, once won five consecutive daily poker tournaments at the Desert Inn hotel-casino in 1995.
The professor, who has studied gambling behavior, observed that Coyle has unusually high ability to focus his attention.
"His ability to play poker at that level means he has an extraordinary ability to focus," Preston said. "He is able to concentrate on whatever is before him 100 percent. That's very difficult.
"He's so far off the curve that it would occur to only a very small percentage of students to try to do what he is doing."
Preston scoffed at those who suggest the university's classes must be too easy to permit such a heavy course load.
"Anyone who has qualms about the academic integrity of UNLV simply doesn't know what's going on here," he said. "An academic institution is supposed to be flexible and deal with people's talents."
Sociology Department Chairman David Dickens, who also signed off on Coyle's petition, conceded he was initially skeptical. He decided to consult with Preston and other professors, who convinced him Coyle was an outstanding student.
"I thought this was a bit much, but he showed he has done the work in the past," Dickens said. "I see that our job is to facilitate the student, not just throw out bureaucratic obstacles."
Final petition approval was handed down by Michael Bowers, associate dean of liberal arts. As a testament to Coyle's intellect, Bowers noted that the student scored a 166 on his LSAT, placing him nationally in the 95th percentile of those who took the law school entrance exam.
Bowers predicted Coyle could qualify for any law school in the country. He termed the student's course load "pretty exceptional."
"It really is unheard of and has resulted in a lot of raised eyebrows," Bowers said. "He's a very intense young man. He reminds me of the 12-year-old who goes to Harvard. You see this kind of student once every 20 years."
That Coyle suddenly became a different type of student after years of mediocrity at UNLV remains a mystery to Bowers.
"He started out shaky," Bowers said. "I don't know if he was simply bored. I've seen students not do well, leave for a year or two, go into the military or business world, learn discipline, and come back and do well. My guess is he simply found a goal. A lot of students don't find a goal."
Academicians around the country expressed disbelief when told of Coyle's course load. None had ever heard of such a feat.
Among the skeptics was Gwendolyn Jordan Dungy, executive director of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators in Washington.
"This just doesn't sound right," she said. "I don't think anything like that has happened before. If you talk about what a college education is all about, I don't think this fits what we had in mind."
She argued that a college education should include participation in campus and other cultural activities, rather than simply going from one class to another.
"If the student is taking 64 credits, he doesn't have the opportunity to do these other things," she said. "I wouldn't hold it up as a model. Education is more than what you can recite on an exam. Otherwise, why have all these other parts of a college institution?"
Warner also said he had never heard of anyone like Coyle.
"Maybe something approaching 25 or 28 credits, but certainly not in the neighborhood of 64," Warner said. "That's pretty remarkable. One of the challenges is, are there enough hours in the day to schedule the class work or related lab work?"
Another skeptic was Simich. He said that if he were Coyle's faculty adviser he probably wouldn't have approved the 64-credit overload petition because of concerns about the student's ability to handle so much work.
"I was skeptical at first that he was completing these credits so I asked for proof and he provided it," Simich said. "I have the transcript in front of me. If he does the work, he does the work. Some people might see that as a reflection on the university, but what can I say?"
Coyle, in fact, has become a member of the university's political science honor society and attends its meetings.
"From time to time I see students who take 21, 24, up to 27 credits," Simich said. "But what he's doing is obviously not physically or intellectually impossible. After all, don't we have people who work 80 hours a week?"
To be sure, Coyle looks trim and fit. He plays golf and basketball on weekends. But he averages only 3 1/2 hours of sleep on week nights, and survives on junk food. More often than not, he eats on the run, slipping into drive-through restaurants on his way to class or work study.
"I'm a heart attack waiting to happen," he said. "But I don't feel sleep deprived. I usually wake up before my alarm. I look forward to going to class."
The typical UNLV undergraduate carries close to 15 credits, or about five courses each semester.
By comparison, Coyle is juggling 16 courses this semester, including two English classes over the Internet. He's also participating in three work study programs, reporting to Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., Nevada State Bank and the Clark County district attorney's office. Gibbons uses several interns, but his chief of staff, Mike Dayton, said Coyle is the first from UNLV.
"They say he's very professional and very reliable about coming into the office," Dayton said.
Coyle also is preparing a senior thesis, surveying the Shoalwater Bay Indian tribe in Washington state to determine its views on the use of Native American logos by sports teams.
He's on schedule to graduate in August with degrees in political science, criminal justice, sociology, psychology and communication.
Coyle boasted that he has a near-perfect class attendance record, even though he conceded he sometimes has to fight fatigue. Preston recalled that Coyle apologized after missing one class because he fell asleep in a student lounge. But Preston and other professors said Coyle is sharp in class.
"You just really have to know your limits," Coyle said. "Time management is the key for me."
His girlfriend, UNLV sophomore Mindy Dhooghe, said Coyle's motivation and enthusiasm are rubbing off on her.
"Because of him I'm going for three degrees," she said. "He makes everyone around him strive to do better. He's a 24-hour guy. He only needs three to four hours of sleep a day, but I don't know how he does it."
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