My fiance and I were discussing our plans for Friday, and at one point he suggested I could pick him up from campus.
And then he added darkly, "Of course, I don't know where on campus."
We had recently been warned students weren't allowed to drop off or pick up students in the Quad Center circle. But I, innocently ignorant, said, "Oh, I can just pick you up in front of the library or in the stadium parking deck."
He shook his head: "Didn't you get the email?"
I hadn't checked it yet, but when I did I found the email sent from parking services to all students. It contained this gem of information: "C permits are specifically NOT ALLOWED in the core of campus between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays during academic sessions. City of Auburn Police Department and Auburn University Department of Public Safety and Security have authority to stop a moving vehicle within central campus that does not display a current Auburn University parking permit."
They added this information to that quote from the Auburn University Parking Rules and Regulations.
"If a vehicle is observed in central campus without a permit or with an inappropriate permit, the driver will be issued a citation."
Did you catch all that? A moving vehicle. You can't even drive down Mell Street if it's 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Not if you only have a C-zone pass, or no pass.
Let's count and see how many people that is.
In short, I find this ridiculous.
I'm usually not one to complain about rules. Generally I come with the mindset that rules are rules for a reason, maybe a reason I don't understand, and it's best not to make fuss.
But I have limits.
It's hard enough to interact with campus already if you have a C-zone pass. Especially if you live in an apartment or mobile home.
Now they plan to enforce this rule as well? Frankly, I didn't even know it existed, and it makes things way more difficult than they need to be.
It's already almost impossible to park in C-zone during academic hours (I circled the coliseum lot for a full half hour the other day before finding a spot), and now parking services says by the way, you can't even drive here.
Now, this possibility of citation would be during an upcoming period of enforcement. Apparently they are going to be enforcing the law sporadically.
Parking services graciously admitted, "We are aware of the need to unload projects for your classes or for helping a friend who lives in the Quad and are looking at what can be done to accommodate these exceptions."
Good. They'd better be.
But the thing is, the instances aren't rare. They're the norm. That doesn't call for accommodating exceptions. That calls for changing the rule.
I hope AU will realize that it needs to adapt in order to serve its students. Especially considering the high proportion of students who live off campus and the already challenging parking situation, the University needs to be doing everything it can to make things easier for students.
Not start enforcing another rule.
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