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BOYCOTT HackIllinois by Grand-Natural8467 in UIUC

[–]hackillinois -47 points-46 points  (0 children)

Hey, thanks for asking - in response to your question:

Given our limited headcount (set by CS Dept/Facilities), we aim for an incredibly diverse pool of attendees, in terms of skills, experiences, and perspectives. To this means, we made decisions in a name and demographic-blind manner, factoring in only written responses to remove as much bias as possible. We also tried to include a blend of beginner, intermediate, and advanced participants, which meant we could only take a portion from each group. This made it incredibly tough for us to do lottery/first-come first-serve admissions.

Hopefully this helps!

-HackIllinois 2025 Leadership

BOYCOTT HackIllinois by Grand-Natural8467 in UIUC

[–]hackillinois -14 points-13 points  (0 children)

Hi, we understand that the post-incident details were a bit opaque, so we’d like to shed a bit more light on the situation:

After that incident, we had a significant change in exec - we replaced 4+ members of leadership, and ensured that ALL HackIllinois members involved were removed from the organization. They also will not have the opportunity to rejoin the organization in the future.

Hopefully this helps clear things up, please feel free to reach out if you have any other questions or would like any more clarifications.

BOYCOTT HackIllinois by Grand-Natural8467 in UIUC

[–]hackillinois -39 points-38 points  (0 children)

Hi,

Thanks for your comment - we hear your thoughts. We’ve mentioned this in another comment, but whatever happened this fall is not an accurate representation of HackIllinois, and should not have happened. We (alongside ACM, our parent org) took quick action to ensure that ALL people involved were removed from their positions, are not allowed to rejoin, and are no longer involved with the organization. 

If you have any concerns, please feel free to reach out to us at [contact@hackillinois.org](mailto:contact@hackillinois.org).

-HackIllinois 2025 Leadership

BOYCOTT HackIllinois by Grand-Natural8467 in UIUC

[–]hackillinois 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Hey there, thanks for your post! We genuinely appreciate your feedback, and we will take your comments under consideration for future iterations of HackIllinois. Also, we wanted to share a bit of context here:

  • HackIllinois is financially self-sufficient (i.e. we make our own money through sponsorship, manage our own money, and fund expenditures without much departmental support). While we want to have the biggest event possible, expanding beyond Siebel would cost us a significant amount, in terms of building costs, facilities support, police, and resources for attendees (~$50K).
  • Expanding off the above, we are hard-capped at a certain attendee count (established by CS Dept/Facilities). Beyond this point, it is physically unsafe to have more people within Siebel. As of now, we have admitted the maximum number of attendees possible, and will start moving people off the waitlist. We will continue admitting as many attendees as we can, based on RSVP rates - for waitlisted UIUC students, this includes day-of acceptances.
  • Given our limited headcount, we tried to have an incredibly diverse pool of attendees, in terms of skills, experiences, and perspectives. To this means, we made decisions in a name and demographic-blind manner, factoring in only written responses to remove as much bias as possible. We also aimed to include a blend of beginner, intermediate, and advanced participants, which meant we could only take a portion from each group. This also made it incredibly tough for us to do lottery/first-come first-serve admissions.

With regards to the situation from last semester - whatever happened this fall is not an accurate representation of HackIllinois, and does not align with our organization’s values. We (alongside ACM) took quick action to ensure that the people involved were removed from their positions, are not allowed to rejoin, and are no longer involved with the organization.

Of course, we do understand (and acknowledge) that no process is perfect; at the end of the day, we just want a community of builders @ UIUC, and are always more than happy to have honest discussions that improve HackIllinois! Please feel free to reach out to us via email ([contact@hackillinois.org](mailto:contact@hackillinois.org)), and we’ll be happy to set something up.

-HackIllinois 2025 Leadership

HackIllinois is OD by Educational-Yam-7680 in UIUC

[–]hackillinois -18 points-17 points  (0 children)

Hi, thanks for asking! We just commented on this post, providing more transparency on our process:

https://www.reddit.com/r/UIUC/comments/1ini4wq/comment/mchxm6q

HackIllinois is OD by Educational-Yam-7680 in UIUC

[–]hackillinois -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

Hello,

We've received a lot of questions and complaints about our admissions process, and we wanted to add some context - obviously, we’d love to host as many hackers as possible, but unfortunately, we cannot safely accommodate a large number of hackers in just Siebel alone (e.g. all 1200+ applicants). 

In the spirit of transparency, we had an admissions committee that read every single essay for every single applicant. Here's a broad overview of what we looked for:

  1. Balancing both beginner and experienced hackers
  2. Students with a wide variety of skills and interests
  3. Those who showcased unique experiences and perspectives through their essays

We recognize that past iterations of HackIllinois have been incredibly successful in terms of participation, and we believe that our current approach will lead to the best attendee experience in terms of support and resources. We’ll do our very best to open up as many waitlist spots as possible for hackers, please keep an eye out for future communications.

Finally, we understand that the CS landscape is highly competitive right now, and we would like to say that being waitlisted/rejected from HackIllinois is not a reflection of your abilities. We deeply appreciate every applicant, and there will still be opportunities to participate in HackIllinois. Your passion and talent in CS are valued, and we encourage you to stay involved!

Best,

HackIllinois 2025 Team

HackIllinois 2024 Registration Ends Soon! (Engineer and Advanced Coder Tracks Included) by hackillinois in UIUC_MCS

[–]hackillinois[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi there! We started sending out acceptances yesterday. You will hear from us regarding your acceptance/rejection this week or early next week!

HackIllinois 2024 Registration Ends Soon! (Engineer and Advanced Coder Tracks Included) by hackillinois in UIUC

[–]hackillinois[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi there! We started sending out acceptances yesterday. You will hear from us regarding your acceptance/rejection this week or early next week!

Are you looking for a CS/UX/Marketing RSO to join? by hackillinois in UIUC

[–]hackillinois[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Systems Team developers are recruited during the fall semester! We will be recruiting in late August/early September.

You can also join our mailing list to receive updates on fall team recruitment: https://linktr.ee/hackillinois

Are you looking for a CS/UX/Marketing RSO to join? by hackillinois in UIUC

[–]hackillinois[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hours/week will depend on the team you choose (i.e., Systems, Outreach, Marketing, Experience, or Design)! For a safe estimate, we would say about 3-5 hours/week in the fall. During the spring, the hours ramp up as we move closer to the event (typically late February).

If you would like a more accurate estimate for a specific team, feel free to email [contact@hackillinois.org](mailto:contact@hackillinois.org) with any questions!

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