LETTER: Don’t change parking times
Editor,
It’s Thursday afternoon. I have been working all morning, and I have a test in my 1:30 p.m. class. I am supposed to get off at 1 p.m., but I get held up at the last moment and don’t get out of there until 1:15. Great, now I have no time to go park my car at my apartment and walk up to campus. To make matters worse, I have just missed the last shuttle up. So, what is my solution? I could park somewhere on campus and risk a ticket, or I could park my car in the parking terrace and retrieve it after it closes at 9:30 p.m. I opt for the second, because chances are I’ll be on campus studying until then anyway. And I mean, 9:30 isn’t too late anyway, is it? Well, you can imagine my surprise and disgust when I was walking by the terrace and noticed a sign saying the terrace would be charging until midnight this year. I walked around and asked the parking attendant why the change was being made. His answer did not surprise me, although it absolutely infuriated me. He responded that in a year of budget cuts, parking had been ordered to find new sources of revenue.
I for one, am starting to get just a little bit sick of administration looking to stop up the holes in the budget dam with the fingers and dollars of students. Parking is and has been a constant problem on campus. Administrators have again and again turned a deaf ear toward students’ pleas for help in this area. And now, parking is trying to take way yet one more option left to students who find themselves in a bind. I would be surprised if analysis of the cost of staffing and electricity to the building would outweigh the revenue gained by keeping it open until midnight. It has been suggested that if the terrace were changed into a B-lot parking facility, the increased sales in parking passes would generate extra revenue, and would offer students an incredible service as well. As a student, I challenge President Hall, Vice Presidents Hunsaker and Franco, and the Parking administration to turn a listening ear to students’ pleas. I challenge them to find a way around this move, and to look instead to offering student the services they need and deserve. Let’s find a way to make that extra money without leaving students in the lurch.
John Navarrete