Illinibucks

Many things on campus could be candidates for Illinibucks. I can think of many times that I have waited in line to receive a good or service from the university. It seems like a smart idea, that students themselves can allocate their Illinibucks to the things which are most important to them. For one, class registration is an often controversial and also highly used example where students might be able to pay using Illinibucks. Some students who are more academically driven may want to use their Illinibucks to register in certain classes they need or want to take. Others may not mind as much, and thus choose not to use their Illinibucks for class registration. I know that often times parking is very hard to find on days we have football games. Personally, I would utilize Illinibucks if it meant I was able to get parking "at the front of the line" , i.e. in a prime area during the games. I often go to the tailgates, or sometimes I may just be headed to the gym, but parking is always a commodity in low supply during those times. I think other candidates for Illinibucks could be things such as lines at the bookstore, busy office hours with professors, or even for skipping lines at the campus dining areas.

I would personally use my Illinibucks only during times of great need, for example if I know that I need a class to graduate, or if I really needed to talk to a professor to pass a class. One thing that you learn being at such a large university is how to manage your time with respect to other people's time. I know it is very hard to get one on one time during office hours with a professor who teaches a large lecture, and so I utilize my TA's and other resources more fully before attempting to reach the professor. Having Illinibucks may "spoil" us in the way that we use them to pay our way to the front rather than using everything at our disposal. Illinibucks may also bring about issues of reasonable decision making by students, and whether it is fair to think that a student-chosen allocation of Illinibucks is in the students' best interests. For example, some students may use their Illinibucks at locations or situations where they get less benefit, and some students may only use them during academic "lines", and the former group may come out to be severely disadvantaged in the long run. If the university sets prices too low on some situations, students would be more likely to pay the price, and thus overexploit the resource- also if too many students pay and "jump to the front" of the line, the Illinibucks become useless because everyone is paying. If the administered price is too high, cutting the line may become cost prohibitive- only available to those who have saved their Illinibucks and have the luxury of paying the higher price. There then is imposed a great need on the school to make sure their transfer pricing is set fairly and justly with thought given to all possible outcomes.