Illinibucking The Trend
Illinibucks™: the chaotic new currency that UIUC introduced in the year 2017 for the purpose of relieving allocation issues with on-campus services. Immediately, the questions everyone asked were be "what services are these used for?" and "how should I, Peter Diamond, use my Illinibucks™?" and of course "what would this actually affect?"
What are they used for?
The short answer is: anything that involves priority or queues. The long answer is: look at this list.
Registration: Tired of waiting to get your time ticket and register after all the courses you want have already filled up? You can spend Illinibucks™ to shoot right to the front of the line! Don't miss out on all those great classes just because you're a Freshman!
Advising: Advising appointments are always (in my experience) on a first-come-first-serve basis. With Illinibucks™ you can bypass this and get advising as soon as you want. This also reduces the amount of time you need to wait before registering, since most colleges make you see your adviser before you can actually register.
Reserving University Spaces: Is your RSO holding an upcoming meeting? Are you a TA looking for a room to hold an exam review session in? Do you just like hanging out in Lincoln Hall classrooms? Worry no more! Prior to Illinibucks™, space reservations were a completely crapshoot, where you'd submit a paper form and hope that one of your choices for rooms was accepted, with little indication of likelihood of reservation. But now, there is a visible price that you can pay to have a space reserved for you immediately. No more filling out forms and waiting for results!
Computer Labs: Is the basement of the English Building full again? With Illinibucks™ you can reserve a spot in advance and make sure there's a computer waiting for you (because it'll only let someone log in if they have your NetID). You also get priority on printing!
Food!: Go right to the front of the food line in your local dining hall with Illinibucks™. You can purchase a semester-long pass for a flat payment, or pay by each day you want priority. It's like a Fast Pass, but for food!
Books: With Illinibucks™, even your studying is faster. Is a library book reserved too far into the future? Are you worried that the bookstore is going to run out of copies of your textbook? You can use Illinibucks™ to go to the front of the queue and get your books immediately. This also applies to the media commons.
How should I, Peter Diamond, use my Illinibucks™?
Honestly, I hadn't really had many issues with these services prior to the introduction of Illinibucks™. I always reserved things and got in queues as early as I possibly could. I meet with my adviser the moment I get my time ticket and I set an alarm on my phone to register for class the very minute I am allowed to. With Illinibucks™, I can probably lighten up on that. I don't eat in dining halls and I rarely buy books from the bookstore, so I could see myself really just using it to get an edge on registration. As a senior graduating next semester, I will be registering for classes only one more time, so it's pretty important that I get into the classes I want/need to be in.
What would this actually affect?
Well, that would, of course, depend on the pricing. In a situation where prices are very low, everyone would be spending their Illinibucks™ at every opportunity, simply because they'd be at a huge disadvantage if they didn't. If you're waiting in line for food, and you know for a fact that everyone can afford to cut ahead of you in line, you're going to have to wait until either everyone has eaten, or the dining hall is empty. Same goes for pretty much any other service. Sure, I could register for advising like normal, but why wouldn't I use my Illinibucks™ to ensure my spot in line? Ultimately, this would result in all the queues going back to normal, except that you can't forget to spend your Illinibucks™ or you will be royally screwed.
If the prices were high, however, things would be a bit different. We'll take my previous example of waiting in line for food. Given that the prices are high and students are significantly more hesitant to spend a chunk of their allocation, you can feel a lot safer getting into the food line for free. Perhaps one or two students might show up in a hurry, see the long food line, and spend their Illinibucks™ so they can quickly eat and get to wherever they need to go, but lines would mostly be unchanged from the pre-currency system. We would end up seeing a lot of students saving their Illinibucks™ for emergency situations like this. This would result in a small amount of risk for every queued service. Sure, you're probably fine just reserving a university space like normal, but there's always the possibility that someone is going to end up using some of their allocation to screw you out of it. Socially, I can imagine there would be a lot of resentment every time someone cuts in line, even though everyone can do it.
What are they used for?
The short answer is: anything that involves priority or queues. The long answer is: look at this list.
Registration: Tired of waiting to get your time ticket and register after all the courses you want have already filled up? You can spend Illinibucks™ to shoot right to the front of the line! Don't miss out on all those great classes just because you're a Freshman!
Advising: Advising appointments are always (in my experience) on a first-come-first-serve basis. With Illinibucks™ you can bypass this and get advising as soon as you want. This also reduces the amount of time you need to wait before registering, since most colleges make you see your adviser before you can actually register.
Reserving University Spaces: Is your RSO holding an upcoming meeting? Are you a TA looking for a room to hold an exam review session in? Do you just like hanging out in Lincoln Hall classrooms? Worry no more! Prior to Illinibucks™, space reservations were a completely crapshoot, where you'd submit a paper form and hope that one of your choices for rooms was accepted, with little indication of likelihood of reservation. But now, there is a visible price that you can pay to have a space reserved for you immediately. No more filling out forms and waiting for results!
Computer Labs: Is the basement of the English Building full again? With Illinibucks™ you can reserve a spot in advance and make sure there's a computer waiting for you (because it'll only let someone log in if they have your NetID). You also get priority on printing!
Food!: Go right to the front of the food line in your local dining hall with Illinibucks™. You can purchase a semester-long pass for a flat payment, or pay by each day you want priority. It's like a Fast Pass, but for food!
Books: With Illinibucks™, even your studying is faster. Is a library book reserved too far into the future? Are you worried that the bookstore is going to run out of copies of your textbook? You can use Illinibucks™ to go to the front of the queue and get your books immediately. This also applies to the media commons.
How should I, Peter Diamond, use my Illinibucks™?
Honestly, I hadn't really had many issues with these services prior to the introduction of Illinibucks™. I always reserved things and got in queues as early as I possibly could. I meet with my adviser the moment I get my time ticket and I set an alarm on my phone to register for class the very minute I am allowed to. With Illinibucks™, I can probably lighten up on that. I don't eat in dining halls and I rarely buy books from the bookstore, so I could see myself really just using it to get an edge on registration. As a senior graduating next semester, I will be registering for classes only one more time, so it's pretty important that I get into the classes I want/need to be in.
What would this actually affect?
Well, that would, of course, depend on the pricing. In a situation where prices are very low, everyone would be spending their Illinibucks™ at every opportunity, simply because they'd be at a huge disadvantage if they didn't. If you're waiting in line for food, and you know for a fact that everyone can afford to cut ahead of you in line, you're going to have to wait until either everyone has eaten, or the dining hall is empty. Same goes for pretty much any other service. Sure, I could register for advising like normal, but why wouldn't I use my Illinibucks™ to ensure my spot in line? Ultimately, this would result in all the queues going back to normal, except that you can't forget to spend your Illinibucks™ or you will be royally screwed.
If the prices were high, however, things would be a bit different. We'll take my previous example of waiting in line for food. Given that the prices are high and students are significantly more hesitant to spend a chunk of their allocation, you can feel a lot safer getting into the food line for free. Perhaps one or two students might show up in a hurry, see the long food line, and spend their Illinibucks™ so they can quickly eat and get to wherever they need to go, but lines would mostly be unchanged from the pre-currency system. We would end up seeing a lot of students saving their Illinibucks™ for emergency situations like this. This would result in a small amount of risk for every queued service. Sure, you're probably fine just reserving a university space like normal, but there's always the possibility that someone is going to end up using some of their allocation to screw you out of it. Socially, I can imagine there would be a lot of resentment every time someone cuts in line, even though everyone can do it.
You made a nice list of uses; thanks for doing that. You said that you weren't particularly constrained before the Illinibucks concept was introduced, because you got started early with doing things, like scheduling a meeting with an advisor. What you didn't say is whether you think that is normal behavior or if most students wait a while to get started (they procrastinate) and by the time they are ready to engage then things are much more crowded. So which is it?
ReplyDeleteLater during the semester we will be talking about incentives to motivate individual performance. The current system provides implicit incentives - by how much time one might expect to wait for the various activities. If many students procrastinate in spite of the incentives, what conclusion can be drawn from that?
You also didn't explicitly say this, but an implication of your analysis is that the Illinibucks would be a kind of income redistribution, away for the students who initiate early and in favor the of the students who procrastinate.
I wonder if there is a different way to think of things where the Illinibucks promote efficiency. Might it be that sometimes those who are at the front of the line happen to be there by luck, rather than because they put in added effort to get to the front? If so, then might the Illinibucks encourage the right person (right in this setting is meant from the perspective of economic efficiency) to be at the front of the line?
In regards to whether or most students get things done early or procrastinate, the college student stereotype tells me that most students wait until the last minute to get things done. I really don't have any data to support this, but it definitely feels like the right conclusion to draw. I feel like procrastination is an incentive-based (or rather disincentive-based) action. If the punishment for procrastination is very severe, like a zero grade on a late homework assignment, then a student will do things on time. However, if a student forgets to reserve a university space until the last second and still gets the space, they don't really have a reason not to procrastinate the next time.
DeleteIf a student procrastinates in spite of the incentives, it simply means that their free time and how they spend it matters more to them than whatever it is they are avoiding and the associated incentive.
I do feel that Illinibucks are a form of income distribution, provided that the prices aren't too low. If the whole point of them is to allow people to jump ahead in line rather than wait, then it seems logical that this puts students who don't procrastinate at a disadvantage.
I don't feel that Illinibucks would promote efficiency in the currently proposed system, where everyone is granted the same amount of Illinibucks no matter what. This brings to mind the arguments for the Universal Basic Income, wherein a nation or state gives all of its citizens a small income every period. If the right student really needs to be at the front of a certain queue, why didn't they just get in line sooner? If there were some way to earn Illinibucks, then this would be a different story, but then it would just become a form of currency and we already know how that system works.
The trademark was a nice touch. You mentioned that there'd be a lot of resentment for the people that use the 'bucks. I agree. I can imagine the system simply not being socially accepted. Say everyone was given some bucks and they had to be used by the end of the year? It might make for an interesting event.
ReplyDelete