Brandeis has clearly learned from the events leading up to former President Carter's visit last winter-in which hundreds of students were forced to wait outside in the freezing cold for hours-and created an online lottery system to distribute a limited number of tickets for former President Bill Clinton's upcoming speech. But while this system offers students the convenience of registering online from the comfort of their own dorm rooms, everyday economics tells us that offering tickets to a randomly generated group of students is far more inefficient than even the longest of lines. Basic economic theory states that one of the primary functions of the price system is its ability to ration scarce resources efficiently within society. By that same logic, any kind of cost associated with an activity will guarantee at least a slight decrease in the demand for the activity. On the other hand, if there are no immediate costs linked to the activity, there would surely be more potential consumers than the market can supply. The basic problem with the random lottery system is that there is essentially no cost of entry. Since it takes less than 30 seconds to enter the lottery, the number of students seeking tickets will be significantly inflated. This means that an even greater number of students will be denied a chance to attend Clinton's speech than Carter's because the supply of seats available is limited and fixed.

Another function of the price system is to reflect the relative value that consumers place on the activity. If one student chooses to bear a higher cost for a given activity than a friend, this means he values the activity more than the friend does. One fundamental flaw of the lottery is the assumption that everyone values the activity equally. This means that the entry of a student who can summarize all of Clinton's recent books and accomplishments is weighted the same as the entry of a student who can't correctly identify Clinton's middle name.

Queuing (or the usage of lines to ration scarce resources) is most effective when applied to activities with no monetary value, because it essentially puts a price on consumers' time. Instead of paying for an activity in dollars, consumers can be awarded access to the event according to the number of minutes they will give up to participate. Therefore, the available tickets to attend the lecture will be allocated to the students who will contribute the greatest number of minutes waiting on line, similar to how a rare Van Gogh masterpiece in an auction will be given to the consumer willing to give up the greatest number of dollars for it. Most sources of pre-existing bias are eliminated in the case of queuing because all students are endowed with a fairly equal number of available minutes, meaning the system doesn't exclude anyone.

I should be clear that I am not advocating a reincarnation of the system used last year. Rather, I wish to express that I would prefer that the administration reform and improve the queuing system rather than completely abandon it. I propose that the tickets be distributed fairly on a first-come, first-served basis whereby a price is assigned to time and all students can line up indoors within the confines of a large on-campus location such as the venue for the lecture itself. The line should take place during a time that is available to the vast majority of students, such as a weekend afternoon, and free exit and entry must be permitted at all times.

This system would efficiently allocate the scarce number of tickets to those students who value the activity most and are willing to trade off the greatest number of minutes, rather than those who will indubitably benefit from random chance. Another alternative would be to maintain the equality and randomness of the lottery system while using queuing to raise the cost of entry. For example, if students needed to pick up an access code in order to participate in the lottery, a greater number of students who highly value seeing the former president would get their wish.



The writer is a member of the Class of 2010.