To the Editor,

It is no surprise that Mr. Hill is obviously frustrated with the parking situation and would like to place the blame on the Institute for poor planning. Now, I too have my qualms with the Institute and some of its policies, however, before even the thought of agreeing with Mr. Hill, and his outrage towards this parking plan, let us reevaluate his side from another perspective.

This parking plan was made well aware to students last year, since the fall of 2001 throughout the 2002 spring term, and over the summer to all incoming students. So Mr. Hill, obviously being a student last year who lived in North Hall, would have been somewhat conscious of the new implementations to take effect. He says so in his Op-Ed that he was using his permit from last year, which can be inferred that he was planning to take ad-vantage of the parking spaces specifically allotted for the new academic year permit holders.

If he got caught four to five days into the academic year, which puts us relatively close into the September time period—August 30 is 2 days away from September 1—when was Mr. Hill going to take the time to go into the parking office to purchase a new permit and refamiliarize himself with the parking regulations? Apparently from the Op-Ed it can be presumed, that he was probably going to “milk-it” until being caught in the act. Not a bad idea; anybody including myself might be tempted to do the same thing. However, it is not an appropriate thing to do.

“Knowledge is power,” so here are points of discussion that need great clarification:

1. They are not Public Safety officers but, in actuality, hired parking attendants to help direct and maintain traffic flow and parking on the main campus. Furthermore there are specific types of Public Safety officers hired to ensure security and safety of the campus.

2. The idea that the spare faculty and staff parking spaces be given to the commuter students is a great idea, and was discussed ex-tensively at Parking Review Board meetings, except for the fact that it is such a small amount—maybe at most 70-90 spots—and the num-ber of commuter undergraduate students is probably around a few hundred. So, there is less than a one in three chance to get a spot.

It was suggested that maybe either seniority level gets first dibs for a raffle of the leftover permits. Well, define seniority level: seniors and juniors or graduate students? That is right! We also have a graduate population of around a few thousand, besides the approximately 4,000 under-graduate population on campus, meaning the total number of students vying for parking spaces went from a few hundred to possibly a thousand or more.

Overall translation: More bickering at all levels as to who should have privilege, since everyone is paying the same tuition rate (Source of monetary funds vary from loans, scholarships, parents, fellowships, RAs, TAs, etc.).

3. Paying $20 for a space at the RPI Fieldhouse is nothing to paying $80 for just the summer at Cornell’s North Campus which is twice the distance to the main-campus from that of the RPI Fieldhouse to the main campus, nor an absurd $300-$400 at Boston University per semester with zero guarantee of a campus street parking space.

In the end, in order to create a fair parking system for all, commuter students are pushed up to the Field House or must find parking on the side streets. Freshmen are barred from having vehicles on campus, and upperclass students choosing to live on campus are allotted a number of spots for their vehicles. Faculty and staff are thus allotted the remaining spots in North Lot, the expanded Academy Hall, Armory, etc.

So there is my rebuttal to Mr. Hill’s Op-Ed, take it as you perceive but, I know for a fact that during my tenure last year as the SMVC-Chair for Judicial Board, the PRB and myself were very vocal via The Poly and at various forums letting the campus know what to expect. Check with The Poly archives, PRB, DOSO, Judicial Board, etc. this plan was taken at full-force and always with good-intentions.

Nagesh Rao

MATL/PHIL ‘02

Former SMVC Chair

for Judicial Board