One important factor in the success of the C&M program at Illinois is a large group of smart and motivated undergrad students who shoulder much of the instructional responsibility with faculty and grad teaching assistants.

Mostly drawn from engineering and science, this group of undergrads makes essential contributions to the program. No other instructional program on campus depends on undergrads the way the C&M program does.

Some of the undergrads are Lab Instructors. They take responsibility for running the C&M labs and they also interact with C&M students by dealing with both math and computer problems. They have to be on the ball and they are.

Other undergrads are NetMath mentors who take full responsibility for distance students working through the Internet. Net Math mentors grade assignments and stay in contact with their students, advising them on problems encountered and helping students to stay on schedule.

Other undergrads work as Class Assistants in camus instruction. Each C&M class has assigned a top quality undergrad who helps both the instructor and the students in the class. They are the first line of teaching in the program and are the main reason for the success of the program. Their relationship with the instructor is as a sergeant is to a lieutenant. They interact with all their students; they are present for all class meetings and they do a lot of grading. In the process, class assistants learn a lot of math. Two of them earned their Ph.D's at Cal Tech just this year. Former class assistants report that their proven math and people skills gave them a big advantage in the job market after their graduations.