Illinbucks

The first thought that came to my mind when I thought about the concept of Illinibucks was Illini Cash. Illini Cash is a convenient way for students at UIUC to make purchases through their I-card instead of cash or debit card. Illini Cash is accepted in various locations such as dining halls, campus recreation, restaurants specifically located on campus, and printing stations. However, in contrast to Illinibucks, the campus would not have to administer a pre-specified price because it would hold the same value as actual money.

Having to set a specific value on cutting in line, I had trouble thinking of a way to appropriately analyze the price of Illinibucks. With that being said, ways that Illinibucks could be used would be cutting in line for dining halls, room at libraries, career fair, sporting events, and registering for classes. One way that I thought about analyzing the prices was to administer surveys. In the survey students would be asked how they would use Illinibucks and how often they would use it. However, I felt that this was somewhat unrealistic because not many students would know how they would practically use Illinibucks and their guesses on the surveys would not serve as an accurate way to set prices and would be too costly. Another way that prices could be analyzed would be through having a “trial period” for Illinibucks. For a certain period of time, a set amount of Illinibucks will be given to all the students and we can keep track of where and how often they use their Illinibucks.

When setting the prices, balance is crucial in that we want the students be motivated to spend the Illinibucks while not making it accessible. If the prices were set too low, there would be no need for Illinibucks. Too many students would utilize it because demands would far outweigh the supply and there would essentially be another first come first serve situation. If the prices were set too high, not many students would be able to utilize it and many services would remain in the same first come first serve situation.

Personally, I would utilize Illinibucks towards educational purposes, specifically to sign up for classes. Being an incoming second semester Junior, there are a lot of classes I need and want to take before graduating. Being able to use Illinibucks would not only save a lot of time but allow me to maximize my education at UIUC as I’m not constrained to only take certain classes because of the capacity. Another way I would use Illinibucks would be at lines in career fairs. At the career fair, the more well-known companies have a long line and many times, I don’t end up having the time to speak to recruiters from all the companies I wanted to go to. Through Illinibucks, I will be able to maximize my time at the career fair and allow me to build the necessary connections to obtain a job in the future.

However, I know that different students have different preferences and not all students would want or need to use their Illinibucks towards their education. I could see many students using their Illinibucks towards recreational activities such as sporting events or music events. This would benefit the students in that there would be shorter waiting time and they would be able to get the seats that they want. In addition, Illinibucks would be very convenient for students who are in a rush as it can be used to cut in lines for dining halls and rooms for libraries.

Overall, I think that Illinibucks is a great and convenient idea, but it would be harder to administer a set price for it.   

Team Structure and Success

During my four summers in high school, I got to be part of a successful team through working at my school’s bookstore. At our high school, students needed to buy textbooks and supplies (for various elective classes) the day of registration. This meant that after students were done getting their IDs and taking care of administrative obligations to enroll in school, they had to pay fees and buy textbooks through the bookstore.

The staff at my high school’s bookstore had 30 employees consisting of 24 high school students and six alumni college students. My assumption was that the college students continued coming back to work because they had a pleasant experience working there, got a .25 cent raise every year, and was convenient in that they only had to work during the summer and didn’t have to go through the application process again.

The 30 employees were divided into 4 stations where each student had to go through after registration. The first station had 5 cash registers, and students paid mandatory fees and other fees for their respective classes. At the second station, the employees had to find the correct books according to each student’s schedules. While we were getting the books, the students would be waiting in a room until they were called to the third station. The third station required each employee to verify with each student that they have received the right text books and supplies for their respective classes. Finally, the last station was a checkout station for the textbooks and supplies with 8 cash registers.  

Comparing my high school bookstore with various structures from the book, I would say that the bookstore would most closely resemble the one boss or the simple hierarchy configuration. I am not too aware of the upper management at the bookstore, but I personally got to only interact with my co-workers and manager. Within the one-boss configuration, the manager would be our one boss and by title, he had authority over the employees and makes almost all the decisions for our group.

However, I would say that information did not flow directly from the manager to the employees. At each station, there was at least one alumni college student who has been working there for at least two years. These alumni students did most of the training for new employees and communicated often with the manager. Whenever I had a question, I would immediately report to the older workers rather than the manager himself because it saved a lot of time. I also felt that the alumni workers were more knowledgeable about each of the stations rather than our manager who usually took part in logistical and clerical duties. Our bookstore was much like the baseball team described in the book in that employees can be transferred from one team to another because the tasks at each station are not too complex. Also, a change in our manager wouldn’t have made a significant difference in our team performance.

I believe that this group is considered successful because we were able to accomplish all of our tasks with minimal complaints from the customers (students) and there was little to no tension within the group. We were able to work together as a successful team because of the size of our group, familiarity of our tasks and roles, and fun team dynamic.

The book describes an optimal size for an efficient team being somewhere between two and twenty-five people. Although our team consisted of 30 employees, having less than ten people at each station made things more manageable. It can be assumed that because there were smaller teams within a team, there would be some kind of division among the whole group. However, because 30 was still a relatively small number of employee, it wasn’t hard to getting to know everyone on the team.

Also, in addition to the college students, many of the high school students came back to work at the bookstore. Because there were many returning employee, they didn’t need to go through training and was able to perform their task even more efficiently the second time around. Through our summers at the bookstore, all the employees were able to build a close bond which allowed us to enjoy working and keep each other accountable.

Through the effective team structure and other various components within the bookstore, I was able to experience what it meant to be part of a highly performing team.

Opportunism

During my freshman year, I had a friend, who I will call John, that was taking a relatively easy 100 level lecture course (easy meaning most students received an A in the class). Many students took the class to boost their GPA while others took it as a required course for their respective majors. John personally took it because it was one of the required courses for his major, but expected to receive an A.

This class was notorious for its minimum work load and effortless exams. The class required students to participate in lecture through iClickers and all the exam were online except for the final. Because all the exams were online, it was easy for students to find the solutions from previous students who have taken the exam and not get caught. However, when John had the opportunity to partake in receiving the easy A, he chose not to look for the solution and took the exam without any aid.

The exam itself consisted of about 50 multiple choice questions with a three-hour time limit. Prior to the actual exam, the students had to agree to following these rules: not receive help from students who are not currently taking the specific course, not posting and sharing solutions to exam questions for other students after the student has completed the exam, not taking the exam in place of another student, or having another student answer exams questions on your behalf, and not engaging in any other activities that will dishonestly improve the student’s results. However, like I previously mentioned, there was no way to enforce these rules given that it was a huge lecture class. The students were ultimately not held accountable for their actions which increased the motivation for many students to act opportunistically.

Putting myself in the shoes of my friend, I knew that there were 3 options: not looking up the solutions, looking up the solutions, and taking the test without the solutions and then comparing it with the solutions before submitting the exam. Going with the first option would be the most ethical choice in that it would not violate the rules of the exam and you would be truly tested for your knowledge in the curriculum. The second choice would result in a good grade with minimal effort but make things difficult in the long run since you’re not allowed to look up the solution online for the final. For me personally, I felt that the third choice would have been the most opportunistic choice because the most selfish choice would have been to learn from my mistakes (comparing my answers to the solutions) and not have my grades suffer as a result.  

To give you a little background about John, he is a very engaged learner and has a very strong work ethic. He excels in most of his classes and his GPA is relatively high. Given his background, his desire to be a good citizen and ethical work performance is what I believe drove his decision to not act with opportunism. He wanted his grades to truly and accurately depict his knowledge in the curriculum he was learning. Morality is subjective and it can sometimes be hard to distinguish what is “right” and “wrong”. However, the exam policy clearly states that looking up the solutions would be a violation of the rules and violating the rules essentially equate to unethical behavior.

However, I wonder if the situation would have been different if John’s GPA was struggling or if he didn’t have enough time to study prior to the time of the exam. I am curious to see how “bad” his situation would have to be before he succumbs to pressure of acting opportunistically, but knowing him as a friend, I don’t think he would ever put himself in a situation like that.