Tim Arnold, University of Central Florida Student, In Trouble For Creating A Better Course Selection Program

Imagine if the college course selection process wasn't so frustrating. What if there was a service that alleviated some of the stress and aided students in creating an ideal class lineup?

Tim Arnold, a senior at the University of Central Florida studying marketing, set out to do exactly that. In early June, he promoted his creation "U Could Finish" on Reddit. The program was designed to send a short message to students' phones as soon as a seat became available in their desired class. Within six days, it received over 500 visitors.

The program was quickly shut down, since the university, it seems, was not much of a fan.

Arnold is now being penalized for "U Could Finish," facing three semesters of academic probation, as well as smaller punishments like writing an essay on why launching the program was wrong.

UCF insisted "U Could Finish" was disrupting normal technology use. They were also unhappy with the small fee Arnold required.

Arnold explained he didn't go to the university to get the program sanctioned because he had found them unhelpful in promoting his projects in the past.

He also said he would be willing to work on "U Could Finish" with UCF, and he would have shut down the program had UCF simply asked him.

“I just feel that the actions they did were very extreme, considering my intent was to help students and not to intentionally subvert the rules,” Arnold told The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Arnold has created a petition on Change.org asking the school to first articulate its reason for the block and to remove it.