Changes to Consumer Economics

Consumer Economics. Whether you love it or hate it, Consumer Economics is a state-required course held online for Uni students on Compass2g. Students are added to the course by the end of the first week of their Freshman year and must pass all nine quizzes by January 1st of their Junior year, as per the Student Handbook guidelines. Students that complete the class get an email noting that they passed the class. If the class is not finished, then students can not sign up for senior courses until it is completed. They also must complete an in-person class during Agora Week in mid-February.

For students that don’t like the course, there may be some welcome change. Karl Radnitzer, Director of Student Life at Uni, said that he attended a “summer course […] over at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, and they had a lot of resources. Like, for example, movies that you can tap into and talk about different things with financial things.”

Radnitzer said, “I would like to definitely make it both where you’re learning about the federal reserve and what that means and then you’d tap in and watch a video for three or four minutes on the federal reserve and then answer some questions.”

Radnitzer is also planning on including some history in the course: “I just got this book called Economic Episodes in American History. There’s a lot of things that happened historically that we can read about and then draw from that to understand financial literacy, economics, consumer ed.”

Craig Russell, the Uni math teacher in charge of administrating the course for the past 15 years, has heard good things from students who praise this class and that say they got something out of it.

Russell has also heard rumors that “some parents have helped their kids get through it at the last minute.” Some students don’t like the course because they feel as though the course is easy or boring. Radnitzer wishes to change this reaction to the Consumer Economics class.

“I just want to make it a little more engaging. Mr. Russell has gave me his blessing to just go at it,” said Radnitzer.

Radnitzer plans on talking to SFAC, the Student-Faculty Advisory Committee, and the Investment Club that he sponsors. He hopes that they will be able to provide him feedback for his prospective changes.

Even with the possible adjustments, procrastination is still a bad idea. Russell said that the best advice is to “get it done early.”