IlliniBucks on Campus

The first thing that came to mind when I read this blog post was using "IlliniBucks" at the local bars on campus. It is no mystery that the University's social scene revolves around the bars, The Red Lion and KAMS. These bars constantly take cover and constantly, night in and night out, have lines that sometimes take up to an hour to enter the bar. On top of that, you have bar employees trying to cut the line with their friends, which adds added stress to the line, but also to the bar employees actually working on a given night. In my opinion, if the university gave away this sort of currency to the students, I would use it on the bars because then I would not have to show up early to avoid the lines and cover fees. The perfect candidate for this who should be allocated the most amount of IlliniBucks would be somebody who goes to the bar more frequently than the average student. 

For example, I know certain people on campus who go to the same bar, The Red Lion, six nights a week, they would go on Sunday but it's closed. They spend copious amounts of money on bar tabs at these specific bars and I believe students who have the ability to go out out every night and still maintain the ability to balance their workload or at least stay afloat academically should be awarded the most. The bar could come up with some sort of system or mobile application, which will keep tally on how much they are spending a week. In return, they get a proportionally equal amount of "IlliniBucks". The University would give these "IlliniBucks" who would allocate them to their "best clients", essentially. So basically, the University is paying these students to go out for free, which is similar to students receiving financial aid for academic success. 

There could be a variety of issues, for example this could perpetuate students to actually go out more and thus negatively affect their academics. Additionally, everybody could end up doing this and the entire idea of having this sort of "VIP" line would fall apart. Also if people start going out every night for these bucks, the overall academic prestige of the university would crumble. In terms of the price, if the price were too low, some people may be deterred because they might not believe their marginal utility is worth going through the trouble of obtaining these bucks. If the price is too high, there would be a lot of competition because then everyone would want in because there worth more and people would want them more. 

This same situation could be completely opposite and work at the Undergraduate Library here right on campus. Students who visit the library the most, print the most, check out the most books, or even to browse the web would be awarded the most bucks by libraries and it would allow students to get late night seating during finals (VIP seating), jump the printing line, or other benefits. If the price were too low, it would be similar to the bars were students would not think they are worth it and may decide to choose to stay in where distractions are. Additionally, if the price were too high the libraries could become overcrowded and unproductive. While I may not be the perfect student, I would take advantage of this because I am so much more productive in a library setting as compared to a non-educational building and I prioritize having my own table in the basement of the UGL. 

Organizations - Soccer

I have been part of many organizations and teams that have been successful, but I believe the most successful team I was part of in terms of the internal systems in place was my travel soccer team, Chicago Magic Academy PSG. We were compromised of some of the most talented soccer players in the state, I would travel an hour every day in order to practice. At one point we were ranked top 10 in the nation and had the #1 rated defense. 

The main goal of our team was to make playoffs and win the national championship, in order to do this we had to finish top 3 in our conference, which was regarded as one of the most competitive conferences in the country. We were extremely disciplined and that was all because of the system we had in place as mentioned from the book, "One Boss". Our "Boss" was our head coach and academy director. He made all the decisions from who was dressing, to who was playing, and to who would be moved off the first team due to poor performance. If you were not on good terms with him, you had no chance of being part of the long term future of the academy. However at the same time, as mentioned in 'Reframing Organizations', the "Simple Hierarchy" also applied because we had someone who would communicate to the director for us, the captains. We had two captains who led the team through warm ups and would let the director know if there were any issues on the teams from a whole-team perspective, but at the same time we could go to the director ourselves for personal matters.  ''Circle Network'' and ''All Channel Network'' both function without a leader, so they do not relate to this successful team. At the same time I believe the my team was more similar to the "Simple Hierarchy" because we also had assistant coaches, we had one associate head coach and then three or four additional assistants that coached the lower level teams. They would be in charge if the director or other higher assistant coaches were not around or could not make training. 

Another big reason we were very successful was that our communication was impeccable on and off the field. We knew when to get on each others backs and knew when to say the right things to each other. We all knew exactly what we were going to do on the field so we could anticipate everything. We all knew our roles on the team and our director made it clear what he expected from you, if you did not live up to his expectations then you would be benched and you would lose your role on the team. In this sense, we had checks and balances. We needed to ensure we were playing at the highest level possible and would get rid of the 'weak-links'. 

We all knew we were working toward a common goal and were able to unite together, although we did not win, we made playoffs and lost to the eventual national champions. Of the six distinguishing characteristics of high performing teams that Katzenbach and Smith's cited in their book, I believe my team possessed common commitment to the goal of a national championship and collective accountability through our checks and balances. 

Overall, while we did not win a national championship, we did make playoffs and made a run at our goal. I believe if we had not made certain internal changes mid-way through the season, we would have accomplished our goal. We brought in kids mid-way through the season from the high school teams and it ruined our chemistry and caused us to lose our undefeated record. 

Opportunities in Life

When I was growing up I was an extremely competitive soccer player. I played at the highest level for my age, academy, and was considered to be one of the best players from my area. I was in the Daily-Herald All Area Team, an All-State player, and regarded for my speed and ability to score goals I was on pace to play division 1 soccer. My team was ranked 10^th in the nation and I was receiving attention from schools like Loyola, Drake, and Stetson  (a small D1 in Daytona beach). I truly enjoyed high school soccer, but academy began to take too much out of me. I was Spring break my senior year I got benched and became extremely frustrated with my new role on the team. I did what any immature, cocky high school kid would do, I quit and gave up scholarship offers from Stetson and Drake, as well as the opportunity to play for Loyola’s D1 team and walk on at the University of Kentucky.

I decided to go to my community college for a year and then transfer out as all the schools I had applied to were soccer schools. I was miserable living at home without my friends, but I ended up transferring to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. While I have enjoyed my time here, joining a fraternity, and continuing soccer playing for the Illinois Men’s Club Soccer team, I frequently wish that I pursued the opportunities that were right in front of me and continued playing soccer at the collegiate D1 level. I believe by joining a fraternity I have gained valuable friendships, experiences, and skills that I could not gain anywhere else. I have become a man, but the life style of the fraternity is in complete contrast with my life style when playing at the highest level of soccer. I would not necessarily call this a bad thing, but I loved soccer more than anything else. I miss it more and more every day and regret not continuing and putting in the effort necessary to become successful and reach the levels I should have played at.

I believe my decision came from the thought process that “good things come to those that wait”. Yes, great things have come since then, but I wish I had realized that the marginal utility I received from competitive soccer far outweighed anything that the fraternity, the club team, or anything at UIUC could do for me. It was a haven for me. I believed if I went to community college, saved money, and worked, only good things would come. I was depressed for a while at community college, things are a total 360 now, but yet I still think about what if with soccer.

I believe that being a good citizen and “good things come out to those who wait” are actually the same thing. I believed that if I would be a “good citizen” and wait before I went away I would benefit more because I was being smarter than the average student who goes to Iowa and pays $45,000 a year for a degree that will net them $40,000 when they get out of school, drowning in debt. Of course, I saved thousands of dollars, but soccer had already been paying for a majority of my school as well as my academics. I regret not continuing soccer and wish I could change the past, but just like anything you live and learn. Opportunities will always present themselves and I think our biggest challenge in life is ensuring we make the correct decisions when faced by them.

My experiences with organizations

When I first decided to enroll at U of I, I had no idea if I wanted to rush or not. I ended up joining one, which I will not name, however, it is one of the most prominent fraternities on campus. During my time before my initiation, my pledge class and I faced many challenges that brought us together and turned us into men. From daily cleanings to standing in front of a room of men yelling at you to going to 3 am's and having to face the challenges of reciting literature of the fraternity/reciting "quotas" of active brothers in the chapter house, I transformed from a boy to a man. My pledge class became a united group of real brothers who have a strong connection that nobody can understand unless they have experienced it themselves. We had an initiation week that lasted all week, I will not go into details about what occurred, however, it was the most challenging week of my life. I wanted to give up, I cried, I went through hell, but I never gave up. I knew if I dropped out I would disappoint my best friends who I pledged with and I knew I was becoming part of something bigger than myself. The day I initiated was one of the happiest days of my life. I experienced my brothers cry, I cried. It was a beautiful moment.

Two years later, nationals have banned our pledgeship and discontinued our initiation week. Nationals believes by instantly initiating will make us better as a chapter and closer as a cohesive unit. They believe our pledgeship is unnecessary and has no purpose. We as a chapter have a huge problem with this change. In our opinion, we believe you need to earn your place in our fraternity. We all have done it and we all are better for it. It is not hazing, it is constructive activities that transform the immature boys we were in high school to young adults that have priorities, goals, and ambition to be successful in life. We understand hardship, we know that hard work is necessary for success and by depriving us of the most beautiful moments of our lives is wrong. These are the transaction costs in ridding of our pledgeship, we are depriving future pledges the chance to become men and experience what hard work actually is. Another transaction cost associated with the new system is that the relationships we build are so strong because of what we went through together. We all share something so special to us and we believe it is actually detrimental to the fraternity's long term future because alumni will not donate back to the house. We have had discussions with guys from 2005, 2009, 2011, 2013, and current chapter members and they all are in agreement that they will not give back to the house and will not continue relationships with the active chapter house. Donations from alumni are huge and a large part of our financial aid for social events and philanthropies, without it we could collapse entirely as a chapter.

I believe the transaction costs associated with doing away with our pledgeship is not worth the risk of allowing the house to potentially crumble and no longer be an active chapter. We all love our fraternity, but we adore our chapter. I am proud to call myself part of this chapter more than I am proud to be part of our fraternity. I would hate to see one of the greatest chapters in the nation discontinue because we decided to take away the backbone of of our house, pledgeship.