Human Capital

Illinibucks

It is interesting to imagine that students could use illinibucks as some sort of "money" to exchange for some privilege, such as registering for classes and housing, going to office hours, a spot for popular sports games or shows on campus. 

So in the first place, the illinibucks should allocated to every students in the same quantity every month or every semester. No matter the student is a freshman or a senior, he or she should have the same right to get access to illinibucks. The illinibucks might expire just like credits in the i-card if students don't use it during certain period. Because if students could accumulate illinibucks over semesters, it would probably give incentive to students to overuse illinibucks after accumulating for a long time, which might give other students inconvenience if the student always use illinibucks to get the priority in office hour. Thus in this way, students would try to use illinibucks properly during every period and make it more fair for everyone.

I think one of the most important candidates is registering classes, which is always a hot topic at the beginning of every semester. Many students reload the registration page in order to get into a class that might be required, or the professor is really excellent for this class, or maybe this is just the only section works for schedule. So it is expected that a lot of students would use illinibucks to get to front of line in registering classes. Actually it should be divided into two parts. First, if the illinibucks are supposed to allow students register class early, which works like James Scholar, then the existence of illinibucks actually won't bring positive effects to students. Because when a lot of students all choose to use illinibucks and move forwards, the students who don't use illinibucks would be left behind and struggle. Eventually everyone moves forward, thus nothing actually changes when everyone take a step forward. A second proposal for illinibucks is that students use it just for specific class which they are eager to register. In that case, illinibucks would do well for students' convenience. Actually this semester I failed to register for one statistics class especially for Econ , which is prerequisite class for many Econ classes. Because of that, I had so many limits in choosing my other Econ classes this semester. I have to find some classes fit my schedule and more importantly, I meet the standards for registering class. So if I have illinibucks I would choose to exchange privilege to register this class so that other things would go well. 

Luckily I just became a James Scholar this semester, thus I could register early for next semester class. So for now, illinibucks doesn't seem appealing to me because I have already got privilege through that approach. Therefore I would probably use illinibucks for privilege in purchasing ticket for specific show. A few weeks ago, when I realized that Chicago Symphony Orchestra is going to perform in Krannert Center in October, I went to the Krannert Website immediately trying to buy tickets. But it turned out that it was already sold out and I was put on the waiting list, which is frustrating. If I have illinibucks, then I would pay illinibucks in exchange to get forward to the line and buy the tickets. 

What about the administrated price for Illinibucks? Of course the price for moving forward in line for every event would cost different quantities of illinibucks. For example, in registering early for specific class, it might cost 1 illinibuck. While if the class is super popular, the high demand will push price to 2 illinibucks. Then But if the price is still 1 illinibuck for this super popular class, then the demand would exceeds the supply a lot, leading to inefficiency in allocation, for when a lot of students pay for the privilege, it's still the problem that not everyone can get into the class. So when the purchase of privilege for certain class is very high, it is necessary to add an extra section to meet the high demand. So there is a way out in this situation. While for the performance or show it is not that simple. Chicago Symphony Orchestra would not just add another performance when the demand is too high. When the price for this show is too low, a lot of people purchase the privilege but many would still stay on the waiting list. Thus in this case, the price should increase so that people who value this higher would have higher chance to get the tickets. But inefficiency still exists. People who value this very high but can't afford it would be left behind after all. Thus when the supply quantity cannot change, in order to get a relatively higher surplus overall, raising the price is the solution.