Fly in 4, part of Temple’s commitment to promote graduating in four years and reduce student debt, is a leading example of how colleges and universities in Greater Philadelphia are encouraging timely graduation.

Fly in 4 provides the resources needed to graduate in four years, such as academic advising and classes offered when students need them. About 93 percent of freshmen signed the graduation partnership this year.

"There are barriers to graduation if you take the wrong classes, if you're not preregistered and you don't get into the class you need," President Neil D. Theobald said. "It's simply kind of routinizing commonsense behaviors; this isn't brain surgery."

In each incoming class, 500 students will receive annual grants of $4,000 so they can dedicate more time to their studies and less to off-campus employment. A Fly in 4 grant allowed Temple sophomore Henry Fountain to give up a weekend bus boy job. "That would have been two days out of my week that I had to work, instead of studying or being on campus,” he said.

Read more in this front-page Philadelphia Inquirer article.