10/27/2016 Julia Sullivan, ECE ILLINOIS
Written by Julia Sullivan, ECE ILLINOIS
Students gathered in the Grainger Auditorium on Wednesday night for the ECE ILLINOIS Town Hall meeting. The panel, moderated by ECE SAC Co-chair Tyler Hansen, included ECE Lecturer Zuofu Cheng, Associate Head for Undergraduate Affairs and Professor Erhan Kudeki, Department Head and Donald Biggar Willett Professor of Engineering William H Sanders, and Chief Advisor and Senior Lecturer Christopher Schmitz.
Students submitted questions to ECE SAC ahead of the meeting. Among the most popular topics was ECE 310. The panel explained that next semester, there would be three parallel sections of the course. The conversation pivoted to which courses are cross-listed with CS @ ILLINOIS. Prof. Kudeki explained that cross-listing is controlled at the campus level, and Prof. Sanders added that students are likely to see more courses cross-listed in the future. He added that more electives in popular areas are being developed by many of the new ECE ILLINOIS faculty.
Moderator Tyler Hansen asked the panel about reports that some TAs have been giving preferential treatment "to students who speak their native tongue" and have helped some students in ways that could be considered unfair. The panel unequivocally and firmly said that this behavior is unacceptable. If a student observes or experiences this, they should make their professor aware of the situation. If they aren't able to resolve it, the panel invited students to reach out to any of them.