ISIS is not the only problem preventing students from getting classes when they want them. Technology is a fun scapegoat, but there is a bigger problem: priority registration for Echols Scholars. Echols Scholars are certainly bright students who deserve many privileges. According to James Sofka, dean and director of the Echols Scholars Program, Echols Scholars often take leading rolls in CIOs, participate in numerous community service activities and often fill the rooms on the Lawn.
Nevertheless, Echols Scholars should have additional requirements above and beyond those of the typical University student in order to earn their exclusive privileges. Currently, the responsibilities do not quite match up with the rewards. In addition, the rewards of the program should be reformed to ensure that first-year Echols Scholars do notregister before fourth years in the College.
Echols Scholars are required to maintain a 3.0 GPA. However, with a 3.13 mean GPA in the College in 2002, according to the Data Digest complied by the University's Institutional Assessment and Studies, Echols Scholars are not kept to a relatively high standard. Echols Scholars should be expected to do more than be in the top 50 percent of their class to earn priority registration. Certainly, most Echols Scholars are taking difficult courses, so their GPA expectation cannot be made too high. Echols Scholars, though, got into the program with high achievement in the toughest classes in high school. Therefore, they should also be expected to achieve high grades in the toughest courses at the University.
With relatively low standards, the program allows Echols Scholars to rest on their laurels from high school. However, when the honors program has minimal expectations with great rewards, the program is not fair in relation to the rest of the University. Of course, most Echols Scholars are incredibly eager students who make and will continue to make excellent contributions to the University without prodding from the Echols Scholar Program. Nevertheless, with lax requirements, it is all too possible for an Echols Scholar to gain all the benefits of a harder working Echols Scholar (or regular University student) without putting out the effort that necessarily deserves priority registration.
The University should expect its Echols Scholars to be on the honor roll. A 3.4 GPA -- the honor roll requirement in the College -- is a more suitable GPA requirement. There should be a little breathing room, especially for first years, but the 3.0 GPA standard is not up to par with what most Echols Scholars are going to, and should, achieve.
Some would argue that the primary purpose of the Echols Scholars Program is to attract potential students with a package designed to entice the best and the brightest from across the country. And indeed, the honors program does attract some fantastic students to the University. Any potential student would love the Echols Scholars Program's benefits: no area requirements, priority registration, freedom in course selection and advisors who are some of the strongest professors at the University. Especially without huge scholarships for the honors programs like other universities, the Echols Scholars Program must find alternative ways to attract students.
Priority registration is a big draw for Echols Scholars, but their rewards are so great that it hurts the University experience for the average student. First-year Echols Scholars registering before fourth years is not in the best interest of the University. Some of the most popular classes in the University are nearly full by the time Echols Scholars get through with them. Classes listed as available to all the University's students should not become de facto Echols-only classes. By allowing Echols Scholars to fill entire seminars and small popular classes, the University essentially denies many students the right to popular classes while giving the average students the pretense that the classes are available to all University students.
To remedy this problem, Echols Scholars ought to have priority registration only among their respective classes. Second-year Echols Scholars would have priority before all the other second years, and first-year Echols should have priority before the other first years. Fourth years should not have trouble taking the classes they want to take. Fourth years should enjoy the privilege of being able to take any course they are interested in, for they have shown their merit through three years of college, while Echols Scholars (especially first years) have been mandated to demonstrate their skill in high school alone.
Most great high school students can become great Echols Scholars here at the University. But the University must look out for what is fair for the entire student body and what is best for its brightest students. Currently, Echols Scholars are not necessarily motivated enough to live up to their potential.
(Patrick Harvey is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He can be reached at pharvey@virginia.edu)
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