Thoughts on 'Illinibucks' Concept

At a major university such as Illinois, there are lines everywhere for everything. Even when there are multiple venues to find what it is you're looking for, the sheer volume of students makes certain that several other people are looking for the exact same thing. This is what makes Illinibucks so interesting. If the university were able to allocate and redistribute these lines based on what students find most important, not only will many students be able to get what they really need  quickly, but they may tend to be more complacent when they are waiting in line for something less vital. Theoretically, the university could increase student satisfaction at little or no financial cost.

The simplest way to implement this system is by administering a given amount of Illinibucks to each student either as a lump sum upon enrollment, or periodically each semester, month, week, etc. If they choose to provide Illinibucks periodically, I believe it is only proper that rollover is allowed, otherwise students would be forced to spend all their Illinibucks in a given amount of time even if they don't wish to so as to not waste them. Rollover would also ease the process of accepting Illinibucks, as vendors would not need to check expiration dates etc. in order to accept the bucks as well as allow students to save for situations that occur infrequently, such as class enrollment.

These Illinibucks could be used at any type of line on campus: bookstores, coffee shops, dining halls, perhaps even local private businesses if they wish to implement the system. It would not be difficult for the university to set such a thing up with local businesses and the result would likely be beneficial for both parties: Illinibucks get more validation and become more valuable and versatile and the businesses may see more customers who wish to take advantage of the bucks.

The difficult part of the system would be in setting prices and the amount allocated to each student. A hierarchy would need to be established to determine which lines are more valuable to cut than others. For example, the price of priority course registration must be far higher than the price to cut in line at the coffee shop. Some differences may be solely based on preference, for those situations, the prices would be similar. The university will need to make sure that there is similar demand quantities for each venue, so that students don't all choose to spend their bucks in the same line, otherwise the system would be useless.
In addition to establishing this hierarchy of prices, the university must decide how many bucks to give each student. There must be enough for students to actually be able to make use of them, but not too much that every student can cut in every line, otherwise the system would be useless.

I personally would likely spend my Illinibucks on registration for course. I'm one of those students who are usually behind the ball when signing up for classes and it would be nice to be able to still get into classes despite my laziness! However, this leads to the problem that I suggested earlier, that certain perks of Illinibucks are much more valuable than others. I assume most students would choose to purchase priority registration, which essentially nullifies the perks. Those who spend their bucks on registration would skip ahead of those who don't but would still have to wait behind the countless students who have already used their bucks on registration. So the benefit for students may not be quite as great as they hope.

With that last bit being said, I still think the system could be overall beneficial to all parties for the second reason I mentioned in my first paragraph. Since students are given the opportunity to cut ahead in line, those who choose not to should tend to be more content than they would be if they had no say in the situation.