It is still perplexing that there are not enough parking spaces to equal the number of permits sold. This is both a moral and legal issue because many students have paid for something that they frequently cannot use. The fact that enrollment at the University is growing at an exponential rate is no longer a valid excuse for this bait-and-switch and if the administration of this great university insists on making us pay for a parking space we cannot use, then they are morally obligated to stop writing parking tickets to those of us who have been oversold. Otherwise, the parking regulations on this campus seem like justification for extortion.

In a CW story last semester, Director of Transportation Services Ronnie Robertson was quoted as saying, “The number of spots allotted to the west ten Hoor parking deck is 1,599. This year, 3,124 students – an increase from about 2,600 last year – received the west commuter parking pass, while 149 students were denied.”

Robertson justified this oversell by saying that not everyone will need those oversold spaces at the same time. This is all fine except for those times when students need to go to the library, a computer lab, the Ferg, or any of the other innumerable places on campus students need to go to. The fact remains, despite this attempt at rationalization, that there are times when students cannot park in the spaces they paid for and consequently must risk a parking ticket to get things done.

Perhaps the administration could be a bit more forgiving with those of us who have been oversold. Sometimes one must bend the rules to do the right thing.

Jeremy Ekberg is a graduate student in English.