Spring Break
Seats for sale: Why UA should auction courses
By: Connor Mendenhall
Issue date: 4/21/08 Section: Opinions
Ask a professor about class conflict and you'll probably get an earful on dialectical materialism and the plight of the worker in capitalist society.
Ask a UA student and they'll have one word: "WebReg."
Students have been engaged in priority registration for next semester's courses since late last month. But once WebReg finally opens to all students this Saturday, the delicate dance of creative scheduling will begin in earnest.
Seasoned students know the steps by heart. Log into Student Link before sunrise to hunt for open spots. Open scores of windows and furiously reload until your mouse - or your will - finally breaks. Strongarm a friend into holding a spot in a popular course or negotiate a swap more convoluted than a North Korean prisoner exchange.
But as long as demand for a limited number of seats continues to surpass supply, some students will always be left locked out of the courses they need most, no matter how many clever tricks they try. Their only recourse? Crowding classrooms in the early days of the semester, clamoring for professors' signatures on drop-add forms.
As class availability dwindles and tuition continues to rise, it's only a matter of time before enterprising students start selling their spots on eBay. Here's hoping that day comes soon, because auctioning off courses is exactly what our overburdened registration system needs.
Auctions operate on a simple principle that is both equitable and efficient: Limited resources should be allocated to those who value them most. In the case of course registration, with too many students competing for too few seats, auctioning courses rather than openly offering them is a perfect fit.
The idea's not so crazy. Course auctions have been used for years at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School, where students are even allowed to speculate and resell seats in order to turn a profit and pick up spots in more popular classes. It's a fitting form of registration for a school dedicated to turning out financial tycoons and market mavens, but in simplified form it could work just as well here at the UA.
Ask a UA student and they'll have one word: "WebReg."
Students have been engaged in priority registration for next semester's courses since late last month. But once WebReg finally opens to all students this Saturday, the delicate dance of creative scheduling will begin in earnest.
Seasoned students know the steps by heart. Log into Student Link before sunrise to hunt for open spots. Open scores of windows and furiously reload until your mouse - or your will - finally breaks. Strongarm a friend into holding a spot in a popular course or negotiate a swap more convoluted than a North Korean prisoner exchange.
But as long as demand for a limited number of seats continues to surpass supply, some students will always be left locked out of the courses they need most, no matter how many clever tricks they try. Their only recourse? Crowding classrooms in the early days of the semester, clamoring for professors' signatures on drop-add forms.
As class availability dwindles and tuition continues to rise, it's only a matter of time before enterprising students start selling their spots on eBay. Here's hoping that day comes soon, because auctioning off courses is exactly what our overburdened registration system needs.
Auctions operate on a simple principle that is both equitable and efficient: Limited resources should be allocated to those who value them most. In the case of course registration, with too many students competing for too few seats, auctioning courses rather than openly offering them is a perfect fit.
The idea's not so crazy. Course auctions have been used for years at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School, where students are even allowed to speculate and resell seats in order to turn a profit and pick up spots in more popular classes. It's a fitting form of registration for a school dedicated to turning out financial tycoons and market mavens, but in simplified form it could work just as well here at the UA.
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Viewing Comments 1 - 4 of 4
Virginia
posted 4/21/08 @ 6:01 PM PST
This seems like an overblown idea. It might be harder in other majors to get the classes you "want," but as an English major I have yet to have any trouble getting into the classes that I wanted or needed from my first semester through this year. (Continued…)
Sullivan
posted 4/22/08 @ 11:25 AM PST
I think students should playfight for courses in a mock gladiatorial arena. The amount of effort they put into the battle would be a pretty clear indicator of their amount of interest in the course. (Continued…)
ECM
posted 4/22/08 @ 3:26 PM PST
Not gonna work. There's no clear way to quantify "the amount of effort they put into the battle" unless we give them actual weapons and let them clobber each other to death. (Continued…)
online auctions
posted 7/28/08 @ 7:17 PM PST
I like Sullivan's idea, bring back the coloseum and lets duke it out. This auction idea is a little too weak and Im not sure it will have broad enough appeal. (Continued…)
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