Recently I received an email from Don Andrae, the director of Parking Services here at AU. I encourage everyone to read it thoroughly, but the gist of it is this: anyone without an A- or B-zone parking pass can be be ticketed for simply driving anywhere on campus.
Furthermore, AU has enlisted the help of the police department to issue these citations. That's right, the cops are now issuing tickets to anyone who simply drives on campus without a green or yellow pass. This includes drop offs and pickups.
The following is my reply to Mr. Andrae.
Wow. Really? Since moving to Auburn to attend graduate school I've seen the following:
1. AU builds new parking garages, specifically the one by the Medical Center, but no nonresident students are allowed to use them.
2. AU begins several new construction projects, including the new rec center and whatever athletic structure is now being erected on what used to be Biggio Drive, thereby eliminating hundreds of nonresident (C) parking spaces, and makes no attempt to replace them.
3. AU designates one or more rows of the coliseum lot that were formerly C-zone spaces as B-zone spaces, eliminating even more non-resident parking.
4. AU decides that no students, resident or otherwise, are even allowed to drive anywhere "central campus," which strangely enough is where all the classes are held. For example, if I would like to drop off my wife at her class at 8 a.m., thereby saving her the 30-minute walk from the nearest available parking lot, the police department will issue me a citation.
Furthermore, it seems this new policy includes the general public as well, as the email from Parking Services simply states that everyone without a pass will now get a ticket.
No logical reason is given for the decision to enforce, in a way that can only be described as draconian, an obscure paragraph of the parking rules and regulations. I mean, seriously? A ticket for driving my wife to class?!
Never mind the dubious enlistment of our city's police force. I'm thrilled that, instead of fighting crime, you've decided that the Auburn Police Department's time is best spent enforcing University parking regulations. I know I'll sleep better at night. Wasn't there an armed robbery on campus last month, committed by someone that walked to central campus?
Where, exactly, do you propose we drop off these students that need to get to class? You say "off-campus," but, as I'm sure you are aware, there aren't a lot of off-campus locations in the area available for pickup and drop-off of students, at least ones that aren't as far away as the ever-receding parking areas.
Should the students that we are ferrying to class simply leap from the moving vehicle as we pass by central campus?
Thanks AU. I'd like to encourage my fellow students here at AU to let Mr. Andrae know how they feel as well.
Ivan Arnold
graduate student, physics
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