Editor:
As I walk from my University of Arizona-provided rooftop view/parking space, I glance to my right. Empty spaces. Another flight down . glance right ... empty spaces. Oh, those are the parking spaces reserved for visitors who were "of great need," who Marlis Davis, director of Parking and Transportation Services, referred to in the Oct. 12 article. I must assume they are being put to good use since they are empty.
As I look at the empty spaces reserved for visitors, I feel like the older child who has been shoved aside as the expectant mother prepares the nursery for the new child. Being an only child, I am now familiar with the angst of sibling rivalry (even with those non-existent visitors). The UA has failed to support the students in its rapacious money-grubbing venture called education. When was the last time the students came first? Why should I and other Park Avenue "Garage-ers" be rudely misplaced to the rooftop when covered parking is empty?
I chose a garage over the battle for alternative parking methods aptly discouraged by lovely parking tickets (there isn't any other crime on campus, is there?). But I do thank Marlis Davis for making sure I was not "significantly harmed," although I did pay a grand total of $260, one arm and one leg for my car's sunny view of Tucson. The most important thing is, I still have my mind. I drive to school every day to educate that mind like thousands of other off-campus students. I do not complain about the cost of the parking permit, but about the dramatic, illogical shove aside. The College of Business and Public Administration, the College of Law and the College of Fine Arts have been requesting more visitor parking Ÿ however, not in this form. In her Oct. 17 letter ("Parking big problem for arts complex"), Elizabeth Ervin of the School of Music and Dance said "the new visitor spaces will not help them Ÿ in fact, it now looks as if evening parking, formerly free, will now be charged!" Is it not enough that the parking garages are oversold? Now the money is squeezed out of every person who steps on campus.
The solution is very logical and simple, Marlis. Set up Park Avenue Garage like Second Street Garage. The visitors would still get charged (that still means Money! Money!), but they would have to vie for their space like the poor, common students. Remember, the visitors are not the special ones here. The UA should not stand with arms open wide to visitors while sectioning the students to the farthest limits of campus. The students are the special ones (in other words, we pay tuition). While the UA sets up monopolies for dining, limits student basketball seats, overprices everything in the bookstore and overall finds every way to suck money from the students, at least make the parking equal for students and open up those empty spaces to everyone.
Jessica Yingling
Chemical Engineering Sophomore