Illinibucks: a Headache or a Time-Saver?

Illinibucks tie perfectly into transfer pricing.  The University would be setting a certain Illinibucks price for priority standing in certain conditions.  I think that ideal situations in which Illinibucks could be applied to would be waiting in line at the dining hall, class registration and, if possible through some sort of reciprocal agreement, bar entry.

I can imagine many students using their Illinibucks to cut the line at the dining hall.  My freshman year, I lived in Illini Tower (IT), so I didn’t have any issues waiting in line to eat since IT is private housing and doesn’t get very congested at meal times.  However, I know for a fact that many of the public housing dining halls are quite different.  I’ve only been to the Ikenberry Commons once to eat, but when I went, it was chaotic and stressful.  The line was extremely long, and we had to get to the dining hall about 25 minutes before opening for dinner to go wait in line.  Applying Illinibucks to this situation would drastically alter things.  Students could choose certain days to skip the line and use their Illinibucks as a sort of fast pass (like at Six Flags) to skip the line and get swiped into the dining hall wait-free.

Another situation in which Illinibucks could be applied to is class registration.  To my understanding, class registration is based on the number of credit hours a student has completed, and this means that younger students oftentimes get the short end of the stick when it comes to registering.  Since they normally have one of the last registration days, they don’t have as much choice when it comes to desirable class times or even desirable classes.  (However, this does not apply to various groups, such as James Scholars and athletes, because they receive priority when it comes to registration.)  Illinibucks could be used to change one’s registration date and/or time, and this would allow students to register earlier.  In the past, I definitely would have used my Illinibucks for this purpose because I’ve had many classes that I would’ve liked to take at a different time, but couldn’t because my ideal section choices were taken by the time my registration time ticket started.

A third situation that I could apply Illinibucks to on campus is bar entry.  Since one must be 19 to enter most of the bars at the University of Illinois, the lines are oftentimes long, and it is quite a hassle to wait in line when it’s snowing and 20 degrees outside.  Therefore, I think that many students would utilize Illinibucks to skip the line at various bars and receive immediate entry.  This would be similar to the use of Illinibucks at dining halls, and students could skip the line on any given night without pre-registering.

Applying the concept of Illinibucks to the University of Illinois would be difficult.  If the price were too low, students would overuse their Illinibucks.  On a given day, there would be tons of people skipping the line at a bar or in the dining hall if it was a good going out night or there was a good meal.  This would most likely cause congestion, and people would be waiting in yet another line for entry.  On the other hand, if the price of Illinibucks were too high, not enough people would utilize them and it would be a waste of a system.  (However, in terms of class registration it may be useful, but this could also create an influx of users simply for registration and for nothing else.) 

I think that this would create the need for individual night/meal pricing.  Skipping the line on a given day would be calculated based on various factors.  In the bar situation, these factors would include: temperature outside (more people would want to skip if it was colder), night of the week (Thursday-Saturday are the most popular nights to go out), drink deals/events at the bar (if these things are occurring, the turnout will be larger) and various other factors.  In terms of skipping the line on for a meal, factors that would need to be considered when pricing would include: specialty meals being served (some dining halls do themed nights, and these increase the turnout), night of the week (some nights are more popular to eat at dining halls than others), type of meal (more people would be present at dinner than at breakfast due to class schedules) and various other factors.

Overall, I think that Illinibucks is a good concept in theory, but it would be a headache to implement due to pricing issues.  The University would be putting a lot of effort in just so that students wouldn't have to wait in line.  After all, what's so horrible about lines?  Patience is a virtue, and lines teach you this, right?