However, conflicts inevitably will arise, and first come-first served is not a good principle for resolving them. First come-first served has the advantage of encouraging departments to finalize their teaching schedules early, but it also allows them to hoard slots by signing up with courses that may not be taught. There is no reason to believe that the first person to sign up always will be the best user of a classroom, and no one gets information about alternative uses. Suppose that each department each semester has a fixed allotment of points. We think that departments are the appropriate agents in this process, rather than individual faculty members, because departments are big enough to see the relationships among their course offerings from the student's point of view, and small enough to understand the merits of faculty members' claims to particular slots.
Departments can also handle better the scheduling problems of adjuncts and graduate students.
If it wants one of these slots, it can just sign up without expending points. Slots that another department has signed up for without points. If it wants one of these slots, it must bid at least one point. Slots that another department has signed up for with points. If it wants one of these slots, it must bid more than the current high bidder.