This morning, Tarleton State University students received an email detailing the recommendations that will be made by the Parking Advisory Committee this semester. In the email, University Police Chief Matt Welch lists several changes that may be implemented as early as this fall (see a later story for more updates on student parking).

An email chain to put McReynolds to shame

Tarleton faculty and staff also received an email listing parking improvements. However, this list gave further detail about staff lots and, judging by the reply-all responses of multiple faculty and staff members, the recipients of this email were not impressed.

Can we even afford to park where we work?

“[A]sking faculty and staff to pay $100 be get into a gated parking lot is excessive and $400 for a reserved space seems to be beyond reasonable and borders on the absurd, even if you try to soften the cost by offering payroll deduction over time,” said Dr. Janet Schmelzer, Professor of History, in response to the possibility of greatly increased parking fees in the fall. “I think a reconsideration of these charges is in order. My unscientific research on salary of faculty and staff indicates that most faculty and staff who could and would need to utilize these spaces cannot afford those prices.”

“We have a student problem.”

Several responders vented frustration toward students who park in employee spaces.

“I am continually battling students for my spot. Students are able to park in any student zoned parking, yet when they are in my spot, I am required to seek a spot that might be as close to my home as it is to my office or classroom,” said Lanell Gonzales, Assistant Professor of English and Languages. “When I have reminded students I have seen parking in neighboring spots, they have made it pretty clear that they are not concerned about getting a ticket nor about the faculty/staff member they have displaced.”

In the original email, Welch noted that students would be towed and booted for parking in reserved spaces.

“In response to the comment on students not caring about getting a ticket,” said Dr. Jeff Justice, Professor of Political Science, “I wonder if they will start to care if we start towing?”

Dr. Mark Shipman also replied to the chain, criticizing the university’s prioritizing of student parking improvements.

“…faculty complaints about parking are almost completely limited to students parking in faculty spaces, so when I was serving on the parking committee, I presented the proposition that we do not have a parking problem, we have a student problem,” said Shipman. “It is a particularly concatenate irony, then, that student complaints appear to have precipitated the university’s consideration of these actions. If we were to maintain the current practices for faculty parking… and students would be de-incentivized to park in faculty spots by a retributive fine (I suggested $500 per offense), I think that our current parking arrangements would be both quite sufficient and quite acceptable to the faculty rank and file.”

“Are we clear on the meaning of the word ‘reserved’?” said Dr. Richard Winton, Professor of Mathematics. If I pay for a reserved space, it doesn’t matter whether I’m using it at the moment or not – it’s RESERVED [sic]. This is a classic case of a recurring problem with students who take reserved spaces we pay for with the (lame) excuse that they were only going to be parked there for a short time (which might mean one hour and fifteen minutes for a class to them). “Reserved” does NOT mean “when you won’t be there long” or “when you think I don’t need it”. If you leave on vacation, do I get to take your television for my own use because it’s sitting idle? Good grief – I can’t believe the mentality of some people.”

Defending the students

A few responders criticized the animosity toward the student body.

“I think some of you are being a bit harsh on the student body.  As a former student at Tarleton State and now as a staff member, I have watched numerous parking spaces sit idle and empty throughout an entire workday,” said Carpenter. “Let us not be one-sided on the subject matter at hand.”

One brave student worker chimed in with her take.

“I do not think it is acceptable for a student of any kind to take a reserved spot. But in some cases that’s the best they are willing to find,” said Cherilyn Porter. “If student parking were increased, then students would be less likely to take faculty spots. At that point, I would be perfectly happy to severely fine students who parked in the reserved spaces. But when TSU is building new dorms on top of the main commuter lots (leaving those behind traditions and the “off campus” lots) it is hard to remain reasonable. There is no good excuse for bad behavior. But if you give the respectful students somewhere to park, then only the disrespectful who continue to take faculty spots will be penalized. Which in my opinion would be fair and hopefully please everyone.”

A universal ride on the struggle bus

While today’s email discussion demonstrated flared tempers and blame throwing, it also made one thing very clear – everyone at Tarleton is frustrated about parking. Gonzales summed it up most accurately in her reply.

“Now I will be asked to pay more and still not be guaranteed a place to park,” Gonzales said. “I feel it is only reasonable that employees should be able to expect to park at their place of employment.”