IlliniBucks

        I think the concept of having IlliniBucks is very interesting in theory. The idea is that the use of IlliniBucks would occur and a pre-specified price set by campus. The goal is to use certain Illinibucks to move to the head of the line for certain classes during registration. I think that this may possibly be applicable but will also come with some problems. First, I think classes with high demand will see the highest amound of Illinibucks allocated towards that. For example, if there is a certain class required by economics majors to take in order to graduate and there are two teachers. Say one teacher has a reputation for being a very stiff grader and aggressive policies while the other teacher is a much easier professor with more leniency. I believe, with this system in play, the university would see a large amount of students allocate Illinibucks towards the teacher who is supposedly easier. Similarly, say a required class only offers times of 8am,1pm, and 4pm. I believe you will see a heavy amount of Illinibucks allocated towards the 1pm class period because many will say 8am is too early, or 4pm is too late in the day.
      If the Illinibucks allocated too much money, many problems would occur. There will be a lot of "ties" in terms of specific amounts of Illinibucks sent towards a class. For example, say if there are five students who allocated ten Illinibucks and there is only one class; how would you go about divvying up one class between five equally qualified students? The same dilemma is possible through having two few Illinibucks. If you have too few Illinibucks you may find students in the dilemma of only being able to get into two classes that they need and having to go random for the rest. The trouble with the policy is finding the right medium; this will be rather difficult because you have to take into account different majors, credit hours, etc. I would personally recommend against such a policy because the policy we have in place right now is the fairest way possible. It rewards students for taking a lot of credit hours and maintaining seniority at the same time. It also takes into account extenuating circumstances such as athletes who need to be able to select their schedule first simply because of their busy schedules. Also, James Scholars deserve to get priority because they are in an elite honors program and have rigorous academic obligations.
            The IlliniBucks idea would only work if many required classes had many options making it so people would not be left out in terms of registering for classes regarding their respective major. That is one of the biggest downfalls to this system; people who are double majoring may find themselves in quite the dilemma and having to narrow down to only a single major. If you are attempting a double major between finance and economics, some of those classes become of high demand and with only limited IlliniBucks it would be difficult. One idea is that if you are pursuing a minor or double major you are allocated extra IlliniBucks. This way students can maintain their pursuance of a dual degree or minor without having to worry about not being able to register for a specific class. Another problem is without previous experience or real life trials it is hard to know what price to set the standard as for the IlliniBucks. The reason this is a serious problem is because if we do not have a solid medium price some students may find themselves at a disadvantage.