Dear editor:
Today, like so many days before, I suffered through a 40-minute commute to work at Ball State. No, I don't live in Anderson. Or Hartford City. Or even Portland. I reside only three miles away, on the west side of Muncie. Why, then, does it take me 40 minutes to get to my place of employment? Because of the woeful inefficiency and backward policies of Ball State Parking Services. Collectively, they are unfit to run a lemonade stand.
This morning, after failing to buy a spot in the "full" parking garage behind Emens Auditorium, I made my way to the commuter lot behind the Student Center. While there, I joined the usual throng of commuters in stalking pedestrians through the lot, each one hoping beyond hope that "their" pedestrian would get into a parked vehicle and free up one of the spaces. After 15 minutes of dancing this dance, I finally picked a winner. "My" pedestrian vacated a space. But my journey had just begun - a half-mile walk awaited me.
As a graduate assistant, I am charged with the responsibility of teaching classes. I am paid by the university to do this. By contract, I am committed to work at the university for a minimum of 20 hours per week. The almighty Parking Services brochure, however, states that a "student" is anyone who is enrolled in class for credit. I am enrolled in six hours of classes (therefore a "student") and ineligible to buy a faculty and staff parking permit.
This definition of "student" is both over-simplified and unenforced. I have taken classes with a number of faculty members who are working on degrees. Do they surrender their faculty and staff parking permits when they sign up for a class? Absolutely not. Nor should they. Their occupational interests on this campus are separated from their academic interests. This should be the policy for graduate assistants as well. Obviously, graduate assistants would rank below faculty members on the University hierarchy. But we deserve the same professional courtesy afforded to the janitorial staff, food service workers, etc.
Failing to get a faculty and staff permit, I have turned my efforts toward acquiring a "restricted lot" permit. On a near-weekly basis, I inquire either in person or by telephone about the availability of restricted permits. Every time, it is the same reply: "Check back again, we might have some available later." And they never do.
It's curious, then, how the restricted lot directly in front of the building I work in is routinely two-thirds empty (as it was today). Parking Services is famous for overselling parking passes, yet the restricted passes are never available.
All I want is the opportunity to pay nearly 3 percent of my annual salary to park within a reasonable distance of my place of work. That's not too much to ask.
Adam Jenkins
graduate
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