Illinibucks

There are a few things on campus that could use an "Illinibucks" system.  The first that come to mind are registering for classes and campus housing.  Both registration of classes and housing are largely determined by a first come first serve basis.  However, I do not think Illinibucks would work as well for housing.  Many students only stay in campus housing for their first year.  When coming into campus, first year students are less informed on the benefits of different housing buildings, and would be less knowledgable about which dorms are better.  First year students would be less likely to use Illinibucks for housing as they would not know to what extent certain dorms are better, and so would be more willing to just let UIUC assign them their dorm from their preferences list.  The majority of Illinibucks for housing would be from second-year students here at UIUC that know more about each dorm, and would have a preference for which dorm to choose, and possibly Illinibucks could be used to ensure they room with a certain person. 

Illinibucks could be a good program for registering for classes, but I am still uncertain about it.  If Illinibucks are allocated to students at no extra cost there is no benefit in not using all of the Illinibucks.  Also, in my experience registering for classes I can usually get into three classes with no trouble, and there are one or two classes, usually required classes that hive higher demand, that are either full or have limited times.  Assuming this is similar to what most people encounter, many people will use all of their Illinibucks for these classes, which if everyone did would leave the same problem of classes being filled by whoever uses their Illinibucks first, assuming prices are fixed by UIUC.  If prices were able to move as spots filled, or if there was more of an auction style, then I think this may have more benefit, as it would be very hard to fix the price of Illinibucks at an equilibrium with supply and demand changing every semester. 

Other problems might be how Illinibucks priority stacks up with priority from class standing and scholar programs that usually determine priority.  If prices are not high enough then these students with priority now might feel cheated about the class being filled by people using Illinibucks.  Maybe the price of classes could differ based on these, with scholar program students and seniors having discounted Illinibucks prices.  Also, it would be hard to determine the pricing differences between things like priority registration for classes and housing. 

Illinibucks could however be useful in tracking the demand for classes.  If all spots of a class are filled by students using Illinibucks fairly quickly, then the department would know that they may need to offer more of the same class, either at different times or with different instructors.  Overall, I am not convinced that this would be a smooth-running program.  I feel there may be many complications, possibly more that it is worth to try this. 

Comments

  1. Professor ArvanOctober 7, 2017 at 3:00 PM

    Imagine, for a second, that the registration system were different than it actually is. So you could register for one class early, but then register for your other classes at the usual time. If this were possible then imagine that some people get the Illinibucks based on a lottery system, so they are able to use the Illinibucks to buy one early course registration. Would that make sense?

    Alternatively, if the technology did enable this, each student could get one early course registration, and then the rest of the courses would be scheduled as they are now. Would that improve matters?

    Regarding housing, I would think that word gets around to students, especially if they are in state, from others in their high school who came to Illinois previously, from older siblings, and possibly via social media. There surely would still be learning from experience by being on campus, but I'm guessing that students aren't quite as uninformed about the housing choice as you made it out to be .

    However, there is a different matter that might be considered rather than the geographic location of the dorm. This is about whether the student knows his roommate or other students on the same floor. Recently there was a piece by Frank Bruni in the New York Times which talked about students being lonely in college. I believe there is a tendency for students who come from a high school that sends many students to the U of I to hang out with those same kids rather than to meet new people. As a way to combat the loneliness, this is understandable. As a way to grow and learn to appreciate others who have different backgrounds, it is less desirable. I am not sure what the right answer is here, but I wonder if Illinibucks used for housing preference might encourage the first outcome. That is something to consider.

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  2. John Maynard Keynes Econ 490 fall 2017October 9, 2017 at 1:16 PM

    I had the same idea about tracking student interests in classes. But, after I thought about it I assume the University already has mechanisms in place to be able to do this. After all Professor Arvan has shown us that he is tracking us without trying to, and I have had multiple conversations with my adviser telling me that i have to be quick to sign up for specific classes. I think that Illnibucks would provide a more quantitative result from tracking. What do you think?

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