More often than not, students at our university are disregarded. Not in the sense that our dollars – or parents’ dollars – do not have value, but it is increasingly obvious that our financial investment is expendable. We are expendable because every dropout frees another bed, and every objection will be silenced by a maze of bureaucratic obstacles. In an era where the cost of a college education, especially state schools, only continues to rise, we must take a serious look at what services our university provides and what obligations they fulfill.
Consider parking and transportation services. Every year we are sold permits. Every year commuter lots are oversold, construction constricts access to major thoroughfares and contracts the size of residential parking areas. Even worse, in the fall, some permanent dorm residents and every commuter (who pays for year-long parking) must clear out of his or her designated parking for UA gamedays. I’ve been told this is the course of progress, and we must all sacrifice in order to achieve the growth that will make our university proud and secure.
You will excuse me if I do not call it progress but poor and pitiful planning. Why offer and sell, or should I say guarantee, 900 students at Presidential parking you will take away? Why oversell commuter lots when you push thousands of students off campus each year? Why build in the middle of the semester, shuffling your faculty around campus, when you have made inadequate accommodations to substitute for their space and the daily commute they must make? What on earth are you thinking by ordering residents of this campus to cede parking at their home for weekend vacationers?
(See also “Parking changes to address overflow”)
I will be told this is the cost of improving the quality of campus life and experience, and patience is required as we grow to better serve our students. However, I translate this to, “we don’t care, you barely matter, and there are hundreds more where you came from waiting to be duped as well.” Unfortunately, I will not tolerate this complacent, avaricious and disgusting attitude.
When I purchase a permit or a service, I expect the company and product to ensure its value. By overselling my spaces as a commuter on the theory that people will arrive at different rates (does not work out by the way), you are telling me, “good luck, and thank you for your money.” When you guarantee a student at a dorm a parking space and then summarily begin construction and tell them to park where they can, you are saying again, “thank you for your money, but your security and convenience are not our problem.” When you demand I clear the way for 100,000+ weekend annoyances, you forget the fact that I am a resident of Tuscaloosa with business to take care of, even on a Saturday.
Time and again, the University has built more on top of less, encroaching on an ever-decreasing space with an ever-increasing population. Time and again, we are expected to bear the insufferable burden and inconveniences of their manifest destiny.
It is more than time that we insist they plan before they build and expand. They have no problem callously inflicting inconvenience on complacent residents and students as long as we tolerate such actions. Sadly for them, I am a capitalist and a student, and I expect to receive services for which I pay money, and it is their fiduciary obligation to ensure that service is good.
John Speer is a graduate student in secondary education. His column runs weekly on Wednesdays.
‘Design for a Living’ entertaining, not substantial
