The use of Illinibucks is an interesting concept that would
have been utilized by a large portion of the student body. The allocation of
each student’s illinibucks would depend on their personal preferences as. In my
opinion the most popular uses for the Illinibucks would be for student housing,
sporting events, and registration.
Assuming that the Illinibucks are gifted to students as soon
as they are admitted to the University, there are a large number of students
who would use them to get place in a specific dorm that they want. When I was
accepted into the University of Illinois, a lot of people, including current
and former students told me where the best place to live on campus was. Every
person I talked to told me to live somewhere in the six pack and not to get
stuck in the campus housing in Urbana known as PAR and FAR. I applied for the inkberry
and was lucky enough to get it. I was slightly indifferent about what part of
campus I lived in; however, a few of my friends had their hearts set on living
in the six pack. One of them was placed in PAR. If he had the choice, he would have
definitely used his bucks to move to the top priority for housing.
Although it is hard to believe that someone would use an
opportunity like this on one of our lack luster sports programs, there are
plenty of diehard Illini fans on this campus. The Illinibucks would not be able
to count as US currency, but it would allow students to secure priority for
certain games to buy tickets. This would most likely be utilized for games
against top ranked opponents, homecoming, or father’s weekend. For situations
like this, the University would need to bump up the price of the Illinibucks
for each game to keep the amount of students using their bucks at a respectable
level. There is a good chance that students would spend their Illinibucks to
secure priority on tickets to a certain game and then end up not purchasing
them. As a result, the University would lose potential revenue that could have
been gained by selling the tickets to local fans. I would most likely spend my
Illinibucks on sporting events, specifically on Illini Basketball tickets. I
would pick one game out of the year, in which they are playing a highly ranked
opponent, and spend them all on that.
The University would have to keep the registration system
the same where the time frame for registering for classes is based on age and
number of credits. However, Illinibucks could be spent to get you into a class
that is perhaps full or are restricted because they specifically required for
other majors. Because there can only be a certain amount of students registered
for each class, this would mean that the person who registered the lasted would
be kicked out. This however could have serious ramifications. Popular majors
with specifically required courses, such as engineering, fill up very fast. Let’s
say that there were two industrial engineers students, one a junior and the
other a senior. Both need to take a course in order to graduate. The senior was
not able to register for the class last semester, and luckily was able to get
into it this year. The junior decides that he is going to take the class in
order to make his course work lighter next year. He uses his Illinibucks to
register for the course, kicking the senior out. The senior has already used
some of his bucks and does not have enough to re-register for the class. As a
result, he will need to pay for another semester so he can finish his
requirement and graduate.
Interesting about the dorm preference. I hadn't heard that before, though with all the construction around the six pack, I can imagine it is desired just because the facilities are newer. On the other hand, I'd have thought that having a good roommate would count for more as well as having some good people on the same floor where you live. The questions is, how do you determine that in advance?
ReplyDeleteOn the sports preference, if it really is one one ticket per year that you're after, you might view the Illinibucks method as a way to get a more equalized distribution in terms of who attends. In the current scheme, fan loyalty is rewarded somewhat. For many years I had season tickets to the basketball. It seemed like I knew the people who sat near me, because they were the same folks as from the year before. But perhaps the system is different for students than for faculty and staff.
It is interesting to me that you didn't consider at all there might be a supply response, especially on the course registration part, if the Illinibucks price were high enough. Why should courses have excess demand? Or, perhaps more relevant, if there must be excess demand for some courses, is the campus getting it right as to which courses are hard to get into? Perhaps some of those courses should have more instructional resources allocated to them. Wouldn't the Illinibucks help to encourage that?
There are a lot of students that room with a friend or someone from their hometown. Those that do not end up living with someone random. Since students already have the ability to choose who they live without extra charge or approval from the housing office, I don't believe it would make sense to use them for this purpose.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting question you pose. Courses should have excess demand because of lack of resources, specifically qualified professors to teach the class. I suppose the illinibucks would help encourage more resources, however it would depend on the class. The courses with the highest excess demand tend to be the interesting gened and/or GPA boosters. Most of these courses aren't taught within the programs that are making the funding the school the most, so there is no point in wasting resources on it. For upper level classes in the college of business and engineering with high demand they may consider opening up another class section. However, they then would need to find another qualified professor to teach the course which can be a difficult and costly process.