Critiques and Reviews

I think in general taking an economics course that is so small was a great challenge. Not many economics courses are offered where we can have such small discussions and this was definitely my first take at it. It is so different with it being an economics course because we have the opportunity to really get critiques not only from the professor but also from our peers in class. Many of the times, in discussion classes I take a back seat because I am not always comfortable speaking or voicing my opinions and sharing my experiences with the rest of the class. However, having such a small class gave me the opportunity to relate myself more closely with the topics being covered so that I would not feel this way.

Another great thing about the structure of this class is that I think I have actually gained something out of this class. For the most part, in many economics courses I will study for an exam and then forget 80% of the material from the course after taking it. However, I do feel that it is different this time only because with every lecture it was tied to things I could relate to and the professors experiences. Having class be run that way really allowed me to better understand a lot of the material rather than just being tested on it where it would only have been memorized. I think one of my favorite topics was when we talked about having “Illini Bucks” because there were so many different aspects one had to take into consideration for a change such as that (and it is something that could possibly happen). I think that the presentations in class were also a good way to encourage discussion while at the same time allow us to get innovative and think of our own experiences to relate to. I really enjoyed working on the presentations and having the groups be picked randomly like they were in the very beginning. I think that my group overall worked well together and each time we met to work on the presentations we all found ways to engage in great conversations about the topics being covered. All in all I really did enjoy this course and I learned a lot about the internal structures and how economics is a key player in all of this. Having this be my first economics course that is so small in size, I think I really enjoyed it and benefited a lot from taking this course. 

Conflicts of Interest

I think that there are many instances where we find ourselves as students of the university not seeing eye to eye with the way things are structured administratively with the University. For instance, one example of this was my freshman year with the TA’s on campus who essentially were graduate students here at the University. I particularly remember my chemistry 102 TA mentioning that because she is a TA for the class she did not have to pay tuition and on top of that she was still getting paid a small salary. However, towards the end of the semester (first semester freshman year) I remember her telling all of us to come support her in a protest against the University because they were no longer pay for their tuitions and cut their salary by a good amount. I remember right outside of Henry Administrative building having TA’s protest against this for almost a week after. This issue was a very big deal because graduate students already are in or can be in a lot of debt from their undergraduate years and now having to only add to that debt while in graduate school.  On top of cutting paying for tuitions the University wanted to lower the pay for the TA’s. It is so interesting to see this in action because in my eyes I completely see why people were upset with this. If anything I do not think that the University should have lowered wages if they were planning on cutting tuitions. In this case particularly the structure favored administration because the school had to make budget changes and cuts due to funding. It just bothers me when the school could be paying better salaries to TA’s if not pay for their tuition because they are the ones who are educating the students here on campus. They dedicate time to have discussions, and further explain and provide guidance to what professors teach us which in many cases is a great help to succeed in certain courses. However, in stead administration finds the need to be paying or increasing salaries and budgets for our athletic teams. By no means do I think college sports does not deserve attention but I do think that the way administration sometimes budgets is not in the best interest for all the students but instead in the interest of the University image.

Now being a senior and having roommates who are TAs for the same class, they themselves complain about how the salary compensation is so low compared to the number of hours they put in teaching the discussion courses and grading their quizzes and coming up with their quizzes and etc. It is hard to say how this could be restructured to favor the students because it really just depends on the administration and where they want to allocate their money, however, I do think that in instances such as this, administration needs to take another look at what really is important and beneficial to everyone.

Being a Leader

One situation where I was able to empower somebody else in a positive way was very recently. Serving on the executive board for the Indian Student Association (ISA) for the past two years, one of my committee chair members whom I have had the opportunity to work with for the past two years came to me with advice. With new executive board elections coming up right around the corner she asked me about the responsibilities of being Internal Vice President and about exactly what the position entailed. After speaking  with her, she was convinced that this was the position for her. Thus, she ran for elections and was able to be elected into the position of Internal Vice president for the upcoming school year. However, only this week did I find out that she not only ran for Internal Vice President for our organization but also just won an executive position in her sorority, Not only that, but with her going into her junior year as a pre-medicine major I wanted her to fully understand what it would require of her to succeed at both positions, and not ruin her GPA in school. It was so hard to talk to her about this because is one of those individuals who likes to take things into their own hands and do everything and anything they possibly can. I met with her several times after finding our she had gotten both positions to talk to her about the pro’s and con’s about both position and how it would pay into effect with her academics next year. Her having to take her MCATS the following year while serving on two executive boards, and taking 21 credit hours was just not going to be an option for her. There was no way she would be sane to do all this, and still have time to serve as a board member in three other pre-health organizations. As a sophomore she felt that she could handle all this. However, after sitting through many conversations and taking her to specifically talk to other students who were taking their MCATS I helped guide her into not sacrificing her school to serve on so many executive boards. I recommended to her that she should essentially pick between one or the other for her sanity and for her future success. In this case, she herself finally realized that giving up either the position with her sorority or ISA was the right thing to do. Thus, after many conversations, me creating pro-con lists and mini-presentations, and having her meet with individuals in her career path, she made the smart choice of dropping out as Internal Vice President from ISA. She knew that she wouldn’t have been able to give it her 100% at the end of the day and she realized that there were other people who would have been able to, even though she is more than qualified for the position. I am glad that I was able to share my experiences with her, while at the same time have her understand the realistic views on some of her decisions for her well being. I think that by stepping up and being that person for her to talk to, ad giving her guidance allowed her to make the right move. If I hadn’t done this now, she may have felt the pressures next year while serving on the board and not been able to do the best job she could and burn herself out. In the end, talking with her recently I do think that she is very happy with her decision and she knows that it is only going to make a positive impact come second semester next year.

Sources of Power

One relationship that I have had in the past would be with my teacher. I feel that many times none the less we find ourselves in situations where students do hold some power, especially in high school classrooms. In particular I do remember that in my AP Government class the teacher had basically given a majority of the power to the students. His main objective for us was that at the end of the year we would all choose to take the AP exam on our own because we felt so confident in the material. Thus, I remember in particular that during the first week of class he had all of us students write up the syllabus; adding in exams, quizzes, presentations, and two topics that should be covered during the year. This alone seemed like a lot of power for high school students at the time. However looking back on the situation it is interesting to see how little power did have. He had given us a strict number of quizzes, tests and presentations to insert into the syllabus. Therefore it is interesting because in a way we were given power to accommodate to our own schedules on when we wanted to have these things, but at the same time the power was very limited because we were not given full authority or control over what we wanted on the syllabus. It was also very interesting because every group that was assigned to create this syllabus still did not always get what they wanted because once we had filled out when we wanted to do things, the teacher had taken dates in the similar time frame and modified the due dates for each of the assignments.

Another thing that really sticks out to me in this situation is the distribution of power. Each group was given the ability to make changes and do what they wanted to, however, the ultimate source of power was still held by the professor. We as students were able to change the outcome of when we wanted to have certain things during the upcoming year, but in the end we also would ultimately be the ones deciding whether or not we wanted to take the AP exam at the end of the day. This distribution of power in a way had a shift over the course of the year. Although he may have accommodated to our schedules and we may have had the opportunity to learn everything in a timely fashion to feel confident to take the AP exam at the end of the year, we as students were the ones who would choose whether we would sit for the exam or not. Even if we were prepared, we had the ability to not take the exam. It was never made a requirement from the beginning; thus, we at the end of the day had a lot of say in the class because the whole purpose of taking an AP course is to sit for the exam, regardless of the structure of the class. I think that in the end our source of power came from the teacher, however over the course of the year, the power was switched to us, because the more students who took the test the better the professor looked in the eyes of the board of education and the school, and ultimately that decision was up to the students.