Friday, October 2, 2015

Illinibucks to bucks in my pocket!

What would happen if the University of Illinois gave "Illinibucks" to each of its students to use on any campus resources?  Given the variety of possibilities, a massive number of transaction costs would necessarily be incurred by the campus to regulate the use of these "monies."  I will address these costs toward the end of this post, but for now, I would like to share my thoughts on what might be considered an item, or head-of-line, candidate.

The obvious candidate is registering for classes.  But, when we actually consider this possibility, we might find it not to be a valid candidate at all.  Allow me to, briefly, explain.  If all students were allocated the same number of Illinibucks to be spent on any service provided by the University, I believe the following would happen: students who consider registration for their preferred classes a top priority, would be willing to spend all of their Illinibucks on this service to get to the head of the line.  But if everyone has the same amount then there will still be hundreds of students "tied" for first, and presumably, the tie breaker would be class-standing, just as it is now.  Rendering Illinibucks useless for registration purposes.  As a University employee, I am very familiar with the patterns of student registration, those that deem it a priority, register as soon as possible after their time ticket, and those that don't care about which classes they take, wait until the first week of classes.  Due to these patterns of all-or-nothing, I believe it can be assumed that if students had Illinibucks, there would be little to no change in the registration process.

Fair candidates that might be considered for eligibility in the Illinibucks program could include tickets to sporting events and important campus events (career fairs, quad day, etc.).  I believe these to be good candidates as there is a middle-ground ranking of priority for students on these types of events.  Some students will find them more important than others, and it would be more likely that a varied number of Illinibucks would be offered in exchange for a certain place in line.

Candidates I believe to be ideal for this program would be internet access, access to library books (specifically those required for classes), and processing paperwork pertinent to specific student status(es).  I believe these to be excellent candidates because they are not always needed and encourage use of Illinibucks on educational enhancement.  They also provide the most viable option for "price" setting by the University.  At a certain price minimum there will be students that do not feel the price is worth it, and others that would pay more than the minimum to be at the head of the line.  A price set too high would create a huge surplus and maybe some students would never use the services, finding ways around it by using internet at home or purchasing books online to avoid the hassle of Illinibucks.  A price set too low would cause an enormous shortage and it would naturally drive prices up, possibly causing auction-style bidding for the services.

I would use my Illinibucks to be the first in line to rent the required texts from the library.  I really don't like spending money on textbooks and would much prefer to rent them so, to me, saving money is the priority.  To many, spending their Illinibucks on a social activity would be much more valuable, but my financial obligations mean my social activities have a much lower opportunity cost if I forgo them.  So in essence, I would find every which way to turn Illinibucks in to actual, real, dollars saved.

2 comments:

  1. The idea of converting Illinibucks into cash while clearly beneficial for the student is problematic because some revenue would need to be found to fund that use. In contrast, using Illinibucks instead of paying a time price (waiting in line for access to a service) requires no revenue to cover the cost of the program other than the small cost of administering the program itself.

    On the issue of whether Illinibucks could be useful for course registration, the most popular courses could carry very high prices in Illinibucks. Essentially, students would have to spend their entire allocation to get into that one course. But that might still be an improvement over the current situation, where if they have low priority for registration time then they have no chance of getting into that particular class.

    I haven't been to quad day for years. To the extent that it is primarily first year students who are the ones waiting in line, it might serve a useful purpose of getting the students to understand how many other students there are and that many things will take waiting to access. So that particular event I wouldn't want to use, but thereafter the other suggest usages you have make sense to me.

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  2. I'm not sure I understand your first comment. But, if you mean that there would have to be revenue to purchase the book in the first place, then I do understand. I guess I was thinking, the library already purchases these books anyway, so using illinibucks to reserve them might make it more useful for students instead of the typical holding them at the front desk, unable to be checked out.

    I understand now how they could be used for course registration. I was thinking solely on the registration order sense. If they were assigned to each class that might work. Then students who really want/need a class can dedicate illinibucks to it, and you may even have a better outcome for gen-eds. Students would be able to consider taking classes in other academic units and broaden their knowledge base due to the fact that they spend all of their illinibucks on core classes.

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