Having a parking space available: priceless

It’s time to pick on everyone’s favorite scapegoat in the world of higher education. Get out the tomatoes – it’s time to address parking. I’m not talking about the parking Nazis who sweep the lots, ready to hand out $10 slips of joy to you miscreants who park where you ain’t supposed to (that’s their job, the pay sucks, and they aren’t the problem anyway). Lay off them, and let’s look at the whole approach to parking.

Boise State University has switched over to doing most everything by computer, and a welcome development it is. Yet, despite these advances, the parking office has not quite gotten with the program.

Sure, you can buy parking permits over the Web, up to a certain point. This point happens to fall before financial aid is disbursed, which means that if you depend on aid to meet your educational expenses, you’ll be waiting in line for what feels like eons.

I doubt this was intentional, but it feels like a punitive measure for those aid-dependent students waiting in line, especially if they read that cheery e-mail sent to BSU accounts saying, “You missed the boat, Charlie. Get in line.”

Then there’s the practice of overselling. The theory is simple: Since not all students are attending classes at the same time, the school feels justified in selling more permits than there are spaces, since not everyone will be needing parking at the same time.

This sounds logical, but in practice, there seem to be a few flaws. For one, it doesn’t really take into account transit time. BSU is pretty spread out, and getting from one place to another takes time. Worse, this practice takes a turn for the crappy when the school sees fit to block off certain lots for events, construction, or just for the hell of it.

Recent news releases have trumpeted the shiny new indoor training center that’s being built, which is nice for those who will use it. However, that is a subset of the student body, whereas parking lots are used across the board. Between events (where the university seems to forget who its customers and raison d’etre are) and construction, it’s a wonder any of us who don’t have class at dark-thirty in the morning can find a spot.

Don’t even get me started on the parking garage, a good idea that seems to be fumbled in the execution. Let’s build a structure that would be a great boon to students going to classes on the north end of campus, and then, we’ll sell individual spots in the garage and make it so that those lucky ones can keep buying up the same spot over and over again, year after year, thus keeping most students from using it. Does this sound like a good idea to you? It apparently does to BSU.

The new lots that have sprung up are a step in the right direction, although the restrictions in the other lots have even managed to hose that good idea into a morass of long lines and late students.

Parking is an issue at every university I’ve ever been to, but BSU seems to be taking the lead in screwing things up here, and it doesn’t have to be.

Rethinking the garage policy, not overselling the lots, hell, strike a deal with some of the local businesses for lot space.

There are ways around this issue. Maybe BSU doesn’t think there is an issue, as long as the permit revenue keeps coming in. Maybe we should all stop paying for permits and tickets and see what happens. How many tow trucks will it take? Something to think about while you’re searching for a spot.

Brandon Nolta / Opinion Writer

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