Illinibucks


What if there are "Illinibucks" at U of I? Illinibucks that can be used for the sole purpose of moving to the head of the line. For colleges like U of I, many things on campus are allocated on a priority basis or first come first serve basis.

Students with upper class standing has a priority to register for classes earlier. Seniors have the earliest time ticket, then juniors, sophomores, and freshman. In addition, I recognized that there are some priorities among seniors as well. If the student is engineering major, that student’s time ticket is a bit earlier than someone who is majoring in performing art. For this case, I think it is because of their tuition differences. In our school, engineering students pay the highest tuition. I think it is fair for school to assign time ticket for registration based on their standing and majors. However, if there were illinibucks available students with lower standing such as Sophomore or Junior, they can register for classes that they want to take even with their circumstances. This can be controversial. This can give benefits to lower class, but not to higher class.

 When I was a sophomore, I wanted to register for ECON 400 level courses, but because of my time ticket every 400 level courses were taken. So, I waited until the first week of classes had started and took the seat. When the course is full after the class has started, most registration is based on first come first serve unless students can put their name on wait list by contacting the college office or the professor. This is how I registered for ECON 400 level course in sophomore year. I had set the “notify me” once the course became available. I got an e-mail that the course is open then I immediately get into the computer to register. But I tried this several times to get into the class since it fills really quickly and many students are trying to register for the class at the same time.

With illinibucks, students can pay certain amount to move to the head of the line and register for classes that they want to take. On the other hand, with the illinibucks, juniors and seniors can struggle to get into the class that they want, and it can be more crucial than freshman or sophomore since they have to actually fulfill the graduation requirement. In consequence, juniors and seniors can also use illinibucks to register earlier than those who used illinibucks and on and on and on. So, if campus is going to provide pre-specified price of illinibuck, there should be fair rules on using them to avoid unfair circumstance. Campus can limit their use of illinibucks on registration. For example, students can only use illinibucks to move to the head of the line of  the wait list for only one or two classes per semester. In that way, students are not overusing their illinibucks and overpay to get into the class, wining the competition with other students for their education.

Students can also use illinibucks not to wait for advising appointment, TA session, and appointment with professors. Sometime it is hard for students to make an appointment with adviser, especially in registration time. For me, I have waited two weeks to actually meet my adviser to discuss about my course planning. Using illinibucks would save students’ waiting time. Also, it can be extremely helpful for some students who needs urgent meeting with adviser. This can also work for TA session and appointment with professor. For TA session in large class like ECON 102 or ECON 103, it is hard to get immediate help from TA since there are already many students waiting in line. Also, it is hard for TA to keep track of who has come first to ask questions. It can also be helpful for TA to keep track of who to help first. If the administered price was too low, many students would buy illinibucks to move to the head of the line, but it is likely not to work well since there are high demand. 

If the administered price was too high, it would work well for students who can afford that high price, but it would be unfair for other students who can’t move to the head of the line even with their upper class standing. If there are illinibucks available on campus with appropriate administered price, I would use it to register for popular class, get help first in TA session, make an earliest possible appointment with adviser and professor.

Comments

  1. Professor ArvanOctober 6, 2019 at 11:32 AM

    I liked the part where you said that the Illinibucks can be used for only one or two courses per semester. I think that makes sense and then gives more students the opportunity to use them for this purpose.

    On the adviser meeting, I wonder if you can explain that more. Did you try to set up the meeting when the busy season had already started? In other words, if you had done it earlier, would it still have been a problem for you. I'm also curious to know what actually happens at a meeting with an advisor? Could much of it be done via online transactions or does it all have to be done face to face?

    Then I wonder if you've thought about the supply of congestible resources. Does the department have enough advisers? How would it tell if it had too many or too few? In the old days faculty would do advising, but now it is done by administrators who are not faculty. Do you think that matters for the type of advice you do get?

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    Replies
    1. Lawrence Klein Econ 490 fall 2019October 6, 2019 at 7:27 PM

      I tried to make an appointment with Chemistry adviser when the busy season had already started. If I have done it earlier, it is likely not to wait so long to meet the adviser.
      Specifically for chemistry advising appointment, it tends to be full since three advisers are all covering Chemistry with Science and Letters (general), Specialized Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry, and Chemical Engineering.

      During the meeting with adviser, we can talk about anything regards to my major, chemistry. I can ask any questions on courses that I have to take or am considering to take, career exploration, and some opportunities on campus. For me, I decided to double major in Economics as well. So, I wanted to talk to adviser on some benefits/advantages that I can have with double major in Economics and Chemistry.

      I think it can be done via online transaction (e-mail) for short or straight-forward question. But, if you want to talk about concerns or want to have conversation to organize some thoughts, it would be much better to have face-to-face meeting with adviser.

      Thinking of supply of congestible resources, I think the department have minimum number of advisers currently. There are quite a long line to speak with adviser in express meeting and hard to make an appointment in busy times. It can be tell by the line or how easy to make an appointment with advisers.

      I think it would be much helpful for students to get advised by faculty, since they are expertise in their field and have many actual experiences on that particular major. But, if they were not trained to do so like advisers, students can have some hard time to communicate with them effectively. In addition, faculties don't have such time to talk to many students who come to speak with them. Advisers will be good at talking to students regarding registration and academic standing, while faculty can talk about opportunities in the field and career exploration.

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  2. Kenneth Arrow Econ 490 fall 2019October 13, 2019 at 6:37 PM

    I actually talked about doing one class registration with Illinibucks in my post too. I have had the same problems registering as you, though for a different course. I think that this implementation would make the lives of many students a lot easier.

    Your TA help idea is interesting as well. If many Illinibucks are used in a certain course then perhaps that could signal to the instructor that they must hire more TAs, therefore making the class better for the students. I would hope that ion this situation the Illinibucks could just be a temporary bandage for the students in most need while the professor works on hiring.

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