I am a senior at RPI and I have been at this school for over four years now. Although I have seen many improvements brought to the school in these past years, parking anywhere on campus during the day is still a major problem. Not only has parking been a problem for many years, but very little has been done to improve the situation, and very much has been done to make things even worse. As most of us know, Barton Hall sits where a parking lot used to be and, although I am not sure, I heard the new biotechnology building will be erected next to the Infirmary, sacrificing, once again, a parking lot. So parking spots are fewer and fewer, while campus population has been steadily increasing. I have been wondering why I still waste my money on parking permits. I had a test this morning, so I decided to drive to campus well in advance (I live in Albany) to give me plenty of time to park my car and go to class. I still had to endure almost 30 minutes of competition with many other drivers in North Lot, endlessly driving around hoping someone would pull out of his spot when I happened to drive by. I even saw a car parked in the bushes overlooking the Physical Plant behind North Lot. When is something going to be done about this? Why not deny parking permits to freshmen, since they live on campus anyway? Or why not only give out a limited amount of permits every semester? Airline companies too sell more tickets than the airplane can actually hold because they know a certain percentage of passenger will not show up, but surely they don’t sell 1,000 tickets for a flight that holds 200! At the very least, why not give the students the opportunity to rent (even at a higher price) a private spot they can keep all semester long? At least commuting students like myself, that don’t have the option of walking to campus wouldn’t have to deal with this insanity. In the end it is really frustrating to have to pay money for parking tickets that most people get because the permit they already paid for is useless and are forced to park in an "illegal"spot so that they are not late for the classes they have also paid for. I hope something will eventually change, even if I won’t see any of it before I graduate in December, but please realize that this situation needs a solution much sooner than later.

Gherardo Mauri