He has seen almost all his entering freshman class graduate in the Collins Center. He has watched as everyone in his major slowly headed in other directions, toward more reliable fields. He’s a self-titled “super, super senior.”

The Department of Education says that fewer than 40 percent of students who enter college each year graduate within four years, while almost 60 percent of students graduate in six years. This statistic rings true for senior Alex Coffey who will “finally” be graduating this May with a studio art degree after six years at Baker University.

“It was a little hard to come to terms with a fifth year at Baker, but then the sixth year came, and I’m kind of fine with it now,” Coffey said. “I’ve realized that even though I’ve wasted two years, I’ve at least gained experiences.”

He came to Baker not knowing what he wanted to do; he knew he loved art and the artistic process, but like most students, he wanted to explore his options. Unfortunately, he said that due to procrastination and his lack of “a calling,” he ended up having to stay at Baker a little bit longer than he hoped.

As a Baldwin City native, his extra years at Baker have been harder than most. Being around what he calls “townies” is “hard,” but he did realize through his time that he will miss the “forced friendships” that come with being in a small town and a part of an even smaller college.

“A lot of the friends I’ve made here, I’m going to miss,” Coffey said. “I’ll probably keep in touch but it will never be the same. Being in this confined place, it forces you to be friends with so many people and when I get out there, I’m going to miss that. “

His extra two years have allowed Coffey to explore more options than he would have been able to in his first few years. He was a member of the Baker University Gaming Society (BUGS) as well as Kappa Sigma fraternity, ran the recycling program, and he was a part of the Art Club for four years. He took all types of courses that interested him, but the further along he got in college, the more he realized what he wanted to do.

“He’s spread himself and took more classes than most students do and I think that always helps,” Coffey’s adviser, Professor of Art Inge Balch, said. “And it helps also that he was able to learn so much about art. I know that contemporary art is really important, but I think they still need to know where it all came from so they don’t keep reinventing the wheel.”

Balch knew that Coffey was going to be at Baker for a while once she realized that every semester he would enroll three weeks late, which made it harder on him to complete his curriculum.

Even though he was a little behind sometimes, something Coffey will openly admit to, Balch loved having him as a student.

“I was thinking for a while that he was going to be one of these forever students, but at least a pleasant person to have around,” Balch said. “He has his own ideas, he knew what he wanted to do, and he worked hard most of the time. But he was always helpful and always ready to pitch in.”

It was quite frustrating for Coffey when Baker completed plans for a new graphics design major during his last year as a student. Although he likes his studio art degree, he says that the graphics design path was more what he wanted.

“If I hadn’t already been here so long I would stay an extra year so that I could get this degree,” Coffey said. “It just kinda sucks that they finally did that in my last year at Baker.”

The addition of this major isn’t the only thing that Coffey has seen change during his time at Baker.

“The Quest and Salon program were new when I got here, but the biggest change I’ve seen is the change in the cafeteria and the LLC to the NLC,” Coffey said, noting how strange it is to watch his environment change. “I think Baker has become more modern. I think it’s trying to re-appeal itself to a new generation. I think the fact that we are getting the graphic design degree and dropping the political science one shows that.“

As an end to his extended time at Baker, Coffey will be hosting “Major Arcana,” his senior art exhibit beginning on April 24 in the Holt-Russell Gallery in Parmenter Hall. The exhibit’s name refers to the 22 major trump cards in a traditional tarot deck. For his show, Coffey recreated these images in Adobe Photoshop.

“I’m nervous but excited for people to see it because it was a lot of work,” Coffey said. “But I bet when anybody’s stuff is about to be shown they have to be a little nervous.”

Coffey’s friend, fellow Kappa Sigma and Baldwin High School Graduate senior Zach McElmurry believes that it was Coffey’s extended experiences at Baker that inspired his work.

“His art exhibit was really about the human nature and that you have to take the good with the bad,” McElmurry said. “Having a full ride, tuition wise, he just didn’t feel like he had to try as hard because there wasn’t a monetary value at stake. So it really encompasses the whole idea of how the bad times have shaped his time here.”

Edited: LB