THOSE who bemoan priority registra- tion for Echols Scholars and students with a truckload of Advanced Placement credits - there are plenty of you - should stop whining.
It is insufficient simply to complain about this issue; if you care about resolving it, you'll offer a better alternative. You never do hear a consistent plan for changing the ISIS system by such cry babies - other than the typical "allow me to sign up earlier" - because there is no better alternative.
I must first confess my bias. I am an Echols Scholar; I was accepted to the program after my first year by applying to it, and I came to the University with 51 AP credits. I believe that I've earned my 8:30 Monday signup time, with diligence and assiduous work. But I've also been on the other side of the fence, during my first year.
At any rate, Echols scholars sign up early for a reason. Through a revealed preference for the world of ideas, for learning, and for hard work, Echols Scholars have earned a spot among the elite of University students. Having the latitude to sign up for any class is instrumental to permitting the academic freedom of these scholars. This translates into a need for priority registration.
Yes, non-Echols also can be scholars, but Echols have proved themselves scholars already. In addition, non-Echols have the opportunity to become Echols after their first year through an application process. So everyone has a second chance at becoming an Echols scholar.
Moreover, non-Echols stand to benefit by Echols priority registration. Echols scholars have strong academic records and therefore are more likely than the average accepted-University student to have Ivy League offers and scholarship offers. Bringing students, who are on the margin in deciding whether or not to come here or go elsewhere, here, and therefore denying them to our peer institutions, makes the University relatively better off.
The value of a University degree, even to a non-Echols, rises because of this program. Eliminating the priority registration, on the other hand, makes the program less attractive and as a result it invites good students to find other schools. This, in turn, lowers the quality of the statistical University student, and therefore it lowers the standing of the University, and your degree.
Perhaps next semester during registration, you can take a moment to thank your Echols friends.
Indexing registration time to the number of accumulated credits is extremely sensible. More credits usually corresponds to the number of semesters of work you've done here. In this way, fourth-year students generally sign up before third-year students, third-year students before second-year students, and so forth. Sure, there are some first-year students who are second-years because of transfer credits, but they are no less second-year students than those students who are in their fourth semester at the University. Or what about the student who accumulates 30 or so AP credits and wants to graduate a year early? Doesn't his early departure free up a year's worth of spots in various classes? Having AP credits should not be treated as a liability in the registration process.
Since critics offer few alternatives, I'll offer some possibilities.
Allow everyone to sign up at the same time? Although this is terribly egalitarian, it is also terribly chaotic. And in this free-for-all, it is not even clear that the problem of fourth years not getting their major classes would be resolved. It probably would be exacerbated by ruthless exploits of ISIS hawks. Pass.
Don't give priority to Echols? Lower the worth of your University degree. Pass.
Don't include AP credits in the count of the number of hours toward registration? This forces such students to stay here longer, and keeps you out of more classes with limited spots. Pass.
Let all "fourth years" sign up together, then "third years," then "second years," then "first years?" Here we have an even larger problem. What is a fourth year? What is a third year? Do AP credits contribute to it, or simply time spent at the University? How do we treat transfer students? The answers to these questions are bound to be just as arbitrary as the cutoff lines based on number of credit hours accumulated.
There's one final option.
Let disenfranchised ISIS users have priority registration - this seems to be the gist of their complaints. Unfortunately, this rewards whining too much, and will result in a lot more of it.
Pass.
(Jeffrey Eisenberg's column appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily.)
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