Editor:

This in is regards to the April 1 article ("Free evening parking to end") on parking.

Another article on Parking and Transportation Services? Why bother? How this unit operates isn't news anymore.

We assume Parking and Transportation Services operates to service campus parking. Wrong! It exists to generate revenues.

We assume input through letters and petitions will have an impact. Wrong again. It's solicited but totally ignored. It's just part of a scheme of listening to the customer, then doing what was originally planned anyway. Parking and Transportation Services only read part of the book on TQM.

We assume market forces of supply and demand control parking availability? Wrong once more. The supply is carefully manipulated and controlled to generate the greatest amount of revenue. Witness the selling of spaces in Park Avenue Garage twice - once to the original permit holders and once again to drive-in traffic.

We assume that safety and convenience are part of the Parking and Transportation Services' mission. Wrong yet again. Try navigating the Park Avenue Garage labyrinth. It's a time bomb.

The director has said innumerable times we must have equalized parking prices in all garages. This is always justification for raising prices. Why don't they lower the prices of other lots to what Park Avenue used to be?

Customer orientation? Caring agency? Attending to the needs of the public who come to campus at night concerts and events? Come on. Why not tie price of increases to the general inflation rate or tuition-rate hikes? We sure wouldn't be seeing these 10-20-30 percent increases on an annual basis.

A real news article will be when Parking and Transportation Services does something for its customers.

James O'Brien
professor, school of music and dance