It’s absurd that The University of Alabama forces students to either buy costly parking passes or get fined in order to park their car while working out at the Recreation and Aquatic Centers.

This entire column can be summed up in the following four points: One, the physical health of students should be an important vested interest for The University of Alabama. Two, because students’ physical health is important to The University of Alabama, the pursuit thereof can be classified as a “good” activity. Three, it is unwise, nonsensical and foolish for anyone to punish activities viewed as “good”. Four, The University of Alabama, then, by forcing students to buy costly parking passes under the threat of fines, is actively an activity that the University itself establishes as “good” and important to the University.

Now let me elaborate.

On its website, the University tells us “Your safety and well-being are one of our highest priorities.” If this is so, then why does the University place such financial barriers in the way of achieving this end? Per UA guidelines, in order to park a car at the Recreation Center, a student must purchase either a commuter pass ($200 a semester) or a residential pass ($235 a semester), which means that a student here can be registered as full-time, pay thousands of dollars in tuition and be in otherwise good standing and still not be allowed to park his or her car at the Recreation Center while working out. This is especially prescient for students who live off-campus for whom it is impractical to walk all the way to a gym on campus. The University can do a better job of ensuring that all students can obtain equal access to a good that the University itself establishes as a high priority.

The University of Alabama cannot simultaneously claim to hold students’ well-being and fitness in high regard while, by design, costly barriers are in the way of students attempting to attain that goal. One of the most basic tenets of behavioral economics is the idea that the right incentives and disincentives can encourage good behavior and discourage bad behavior. This is simply common sense. We instill this concept in our children (and pets, for that matter) from a young age. If four-year-old Bobby comes to his mother when she calls him, he gets a smile and a hug. If Bobby disobeys, Bobby gets a frown and a spanking. As we grow up, the rewards and punishments change accordingly. In the workplace, good behavior is encouraged with the promises of higher compensation. Bad behavior will get you fired, fined or thrown in jail.

The University of Alabama seems to understand this concept well enough. Good behavior is recognized with the bestowal of important-sounding Latin words that display your academic prowess and with admittance into lofty honor societies. Likewise, bad behavior is punished by expulsion, student non-academic misconduct citations and, most relevant to us today, parking fines.

So then why, if students’ physical health and well-being is indeed one of the University’s top priorities, does the University place such a significant financial burden on students who wish to achieve it? For many students, myself included, paying for a parking pass isn’t a problem, and parking fines are a minor annoyance, but I dare not presume that there aren’t hardworking, tuition-paying students at the University who find a $400 price tag a bit out of their price range, and a $50 fine to mean going without groceries for another week. This trade-off is avoidable.

I’m not arguing that forcing students to pay for parking passes to work out is unjust, but simply that a system of demanding significant financial cost and incurring substantial penalties for what the University itself has designated to be a “top priority” for the University is inherently not only contradictory but counterproductive to its goal.

The University of Alabama seeks, in its own words, to “advance the intellectual and social condition of the people of the State, the nation, and the world…” One may wonder, as the flagship University of one of the unhealthiest and poorest states in America, what kind of advancement the University is doing by placing financial barriers in the way of students seeking to be healthy. Hopefully, the University will reconsider this policy while also thinking of creative ways to truly encourage and promote student health.

Dr. Bell, please let us eat cake, and then let us work out.

Will Leathers is a sophomore majoring in management information systems. His column runs biweekly.