Editor,
Not that I don’t love getting tickets for parking in crappy, pot-hole-riddled, mostly empty lots two miles from my classroom, but I’m starting to suspect that UNM’s parking enforcement program doesn’t make any valuable contributions to the learning process at UNM. I feel like any revenue they bring in comes from exploiting students who are usually in too much of a hurry to type in the right stall number or park in the right lot (it’s suspiciously easy to do this in some lots). Frankly, I cannot fathom what meaningful value the organization has for our students, especially when we’re facing a 2.5 percent increase in tuition.
Let’s use our new budget to build free student parking facilities that help the students, instead of vindictively charging them for trying to get to class on time. No student should ever get charged for parking on campus. Period.
Also, let’s find new work for the parking attendants. There has got to be a cheaper, automated way to manage parking, but if they insist on being callous and overly pragmatic then maybe they can get jobs with the IRS or denying health insurance claims for children or something.
David Dobbs
UNM graduate student
