Remember that dude you sat next to in your freshman communication class who gave a five minute speech on how to cut a pineapple? Chances are, he hasn’t graduated. It turns out, you have a better chance of calling a coin flip correctly than you do of graduating from SF State within six years.

The SF State Attrition Study of 2012 shows it’s not just you, but actually more than half of the full-time freshmen enrolled in 2005 did not graduate within six years. Of those, 86 percent were enrolled continuously from semester-to-semester. These statistics released in Oct. 2012 are alarming and should signal to the University drastic measures need to be implemented to address this problem.

And when we say drastic measures, we don’t mean charging students a substantial amount of money for not graduating on time.

Although administration is using a portion of the money received from Proposition 30 to add lost sections to impacted majors, all majors are struggling to provide the right classes for students and more sections are necessary across the board. But adding more sections does not do enough to solve our dismal graduation rate.

SF State should look to new and innovative ways to augment their ability to serve students. Partnerships with local community colleges could secure students options for outside enrollment. Soliciting money from donors and alumni could be a small, but nevertheless, valuable source of revenue for more classes.

If SF State doesn’t have the budget for alleviating “bottlenecking,” they should offer options such as directing students to colleges with transferrable units and more seats, and online courses available from other California State Universities.

Many students are well aware of their grim futures, fighting for permit numbers and enrolling in summer school — but what they haven’t been told is why they should keep hope. Students deserve to know the ways administration is making the walk in purple and gold a near reality.