Illinibucks on Campus

The implementation of “Illinibucks” on campus would be an interesting concept. We are under the assumption that the campus sets the price of the “Illinibucks”, so I would argue a few things come into pay to determine the price. I’m sure they consider how many students are enrolled (including undergrad and graduate students), the value of what the bucks are used for or the demand, and the cost to transfer over to the new system.

It is left up to interpretation, how the “Illlinibucks” are monitored and distributed. There are many different forms of distribution that could be practiced here, like at the beginning of the semester, beginning of the year, or throughout the semester. If the students had the opportunity to get more “Illinibucks” throughout the semester, then they would feel less stress to hold on to them. In contrast, If the bucks are distributed at on a single time basis for the semester or year, students might feel the need to hold onto them. In addition, it is important to know if the excess “Illinibucks” roll over to the next semester. On campus, the dining halls have a system in the meal plans where students can have money on their Icard that can be used to buy extra meals or food at campus snack shops. Extra money on student’s Icards will roll over to the next week and so on until the end of the semester. However, at the end of the semester, the extra credits expire and the value is lost. If this was implements with the “Illinibucks” then students would use then each semester to move to the head of the line.

If we used “Illinibucks” here, I would use them to get into popular classes that I know are harder to get into due to limited seats. Having the bucks would insure me a place in the front of the line to sign up for classes and I would have an earlier time stamp to sign up. Because of this, I would be able to get into some popular courses that I want to take before graduating. For example, I would like to get into the Women in Econ 490 course next year. This is a difficult course to get into unless you have an early time stamp to register.

In terms of price, the “Illinibucks” would need to be price correctly or issues would arise from the mistake. If the bucks are priced too low, then more students will be willing to buy them and more students will have the opportunity to jump to the front of the line. If this happens then there really isn’t a front of the line anymore. In contrast, if the “Illinibucks” are priced too high, then less or no students will be willing to buy then and the bucks will be useless to the campus.


Some other issues that might come from “Illinibucks” are reselling by studetns, replicating fake bucks, and getting started. The “Illinibucks” would need to be sold once and not be able to be transferred from one student to another. If this happened, this would create a second market and affect the success of the original market. The bucks would need to be credible and not duplicated. This shouldn’t be a major worry with technology. Lastly, getting the system started and thriving. It is commonly known “it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks”. In terms of the campus, I believe there would be friction from upper classmen like juniors, seniors, and graduate students. These students have been on campus awhile and may not adopt the new system. Also, these students will already have earlier time stamps because of their year status and GPAs. Freshmen and sophomore students will be more likely to use “Illinibucks” because they are new to the campus and do not know any different. If a system is in place when a student comes to campus, then they will be more likely to go with the flow then question it.

Comments

  1. Professor ArvanOctober 7, 2017 at 12:41 PM

    I don't know how the meal plan works. So, given your description of the extra credits, I wonder how the basic plan works. Is there purchase then, depending on what food you get or is it a certain number of meals a week but for each meal you can get as much as you want? If I'm understanding the point of view of dining services in offering the extra credits, students may miss the meals they are entitled to have under the plan - they sleep through breakfast, for example. So the extra credit is meant to offset that, let the kid get a bit to eat when that is possible. Otherwise, I don't get it.

    On your comment about Econ 490 sections being maxed out, I just did a look in Course Explorer and indeed three different Econ 490s are currently closed. One of the questions I wanted students to get at in thinking about this post was whether there might be a supply response in addition to having different students get into scarce courses. As I explained in a post to the class site on the subject, one possibility would be to move to a blended format where, for example, the class met face to face only once a week and the rest of the interaction was online. So a course which met Tuesday and Thursday now would instead have one section that meets on Tuesday and another that meets on Thursday. If Econ of Organizations were in excess demand (it hasn't been) I would be willing to teach it this way - provided I was paid more to do so.
    So what I want students to think through is whether incurring those additional labor costs to meet supply makes sense from the provider's point of view. This is one where I really don't know the answer for the Econ 490 classes. But when it is a large lecture course that we're talking about and hundreds of students are being shut out of the class, then something like this makese sense to me.

    It seems to me you could have gone a little further in your last paragraph. First, if the reselling was not viewed as a good thing by the campus, couldn't it find a way to prevent it? Second, when you talk of undergraduate students as old dogs, even the juniors and seniors, I have to laugh. I'm the old dog here. If students aren't young dogs, wow!. As to resistance to a system, because it disadvantages you, that is really a different issue. So one might have asked, more generally, would there be a way to phase in the Illinibucks in such a way as that resistance didn't happen? I'm not sure there is, but it is something to consider.

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    Replies
    1. Joan RobinsonOctober 9, 2017 at 12:39 PM

      The meal plans on campus offer a different number of meals and extra credits for each plan. For example, I had a meal plan that I believe gave me 13 meals a week. I could use those meals at any of the University housing dining halls and I could get as much food as I wanted per meal swipe. The credits are meant for what you described as offsetting the meals that are missed.

      On the point about supply changing to meet the demand of students, I think this is a hope of many students. I'm sure students would like courses to have more availability. Your idea about shifting half the course online would be an interesting approach to the problem. I have had professors in the past that have made it clear that they do not appreciate online texts, quizzes, etc. and I could not see them practicing this method.

      In addition to classing that are maxed out, I wonder what the turnout is to the classes. It is frustrating to see empty seats in class and a poor turnout amongst classmates. It would be even more frustrating to see poor turnout in a maxed out class that I would want to get into.

      Addressing my last paragraph, I assume reselling the "Illinibucks" would not be a good thing for campus because I believe the new market would undermine the original one. The campus could find a way to prevent reselling, but if they could not or did not think of that possibility I thought it would be good to mention it.

      I used the phrase old dogs to reference the idea that juniors and seniors have already been on campus for a few years and are used to a system. I do believe they could accept a new system, but I think it would be easier to start with new students that have no prior knowledge. A phase in system for the "Illinibucks" would probably be the best solution.

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  2. Robert Giffen Econ 490 fall 2017October 16, 2017 at 8:43 AM

    I found it interesting how you considered several different aspects for the bucks. For distribution, I wonder which method of distribution would be most effective? It has to be a middle ground between distributing it once and many times a semester otherwise, like you said, they wouldn't be useful. Additionally, there has to be some kind of exclusivity in that comes with obtaining them in terms of setting a price that isn't too low or too high.

    My roommate is in Women of Economics and I know she had a really hard time getting into that class. Although we are seniors, she still barely got in. I think bucks would have been really useful for her in this situation.

    I like that you considered a situation where people may resell and it would reduce the inefficiency of the market. I remember this being a condition for price discrimination model. You brought up other really good points about technology and difficulties implementing the system into the school. Would have liked to hear more about this because I found it to be the most interesting part of your post.

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