Illinibucks

This blogpost is about the idea of Illinibucks. Imagine that you have a certain amount of points (Illinibucks) and you can use them for university purposes to make your life sometimes a little easier when you need it. The amount of coins (the price) that you have to give for a certain purpose is determined by the university. A few questions come in mind about this topic, like wat kind of university purposes are we talking about? How should you use your Illinibucks? What happens when the prices are set wrong? I will talk about those questions in the paragraphs below.

So what should you be able to buy with your Illinibucks? A first idea would be social events. Sometimes social events, that have a adding value for you resume, will have a limited amount of people that can join. When a student feels that this specific social event would be something really valuable for him or her, than those Illinibucks can help the student to ensure a place at the social event. It would be economic optimal if the students that go to the event are the students that values the event the highest. When you make it possible to use Illinibucks to ensure your place at the event, then you make the even more efficient by filtering the students that have a high value for this event. A second example is spending your Illinibucks for a little help with your application for a specific high function within the student board of the university. If this position is something you are really looking for and your average is just a little too low, Illinibucks can help in this situation to get a little bit more points to help you to get the job you always dreamt of.

Everyone would probably use the Illinibucks in a different way, because no-one has the same priorities and spending patterns. I can think about the way I would use my Illinibucks. Normally I'm very carful how I spend my money and I think I would have the same spending pattern with my Illinibucks. Nevertheless, I think this would not be a great way to use the Illinibucks, because saving them for later is limited. After graduating, you will not be able to use them anymore. I think my first instinct wants to save the points, but after a little time I would probably considering using them for several things and allocate them as efficiently as I can for my preferences. This is only possible if I have the full informational about the spending opportunities in the time that I can use my Illinibucks.

Since every students gets the same amount of Illinibucks, the prices are for everyone the same. If all the prices were set very low, it wouldn't affect the spending pattern of the students, because the prices are all relative.This is the same for very high prices. So what would happen when the prices are set wrong relatively? Maybe too low, maybe too high. If prices for certain purposes are set wrong, the Illinibucks would not be spend efficiently by the students. So imagine if the campus set the price too low for a certain purpose. The students that wouldn't choose this purpose at a 'normal' price now can see this purpose as a good deal and maybe change their preferences, because of the power of the 'deal'. When prices are set too low, it can be that students will choose for good deals instead of their own preferences. Another problem with prices that are too low, the power of the Illinibucks will fade. If a price is set too low and a lot of students see it as a good deal, a lot of students will use their Illinibucks and the power of the Illinibucks will fade, since 'everyone' will use them. The Illinibucks will not be something additional anymore.

For prices that are set too high can happen the same thing. If a student sees an opportunity and the Illinibucks would really help him or her, but the price is set too high then the student is not willing to pay a high amount of Illinibucks and will miss the opportunity of using the Illinibucks. Those examples of the prices that are too low or too high are both leading to an inefficient way of using the Illinibucks. Therefore, it is really important to have a good economical system for the Illinibucks to work, but in my opinion it would be an interesting idea to try first in a small group.