SDSU Parking and Traffic Committee: What color is the sky in your world? Since massive parking policy changes have been forced upon us for two consecutive years, I would assume that there are massive parking problems on campus that should be addressed. I don’t see them. I have not seen reports in The Collegian or Brookings Register of pedestrians being hit on campus. I’ve never seen a pedestrian accident on campus in my years here as both a student and now a faculty member. No one on campus that I know or have talked to had any idea of why the changes were made. Even if the reasons are legitimate, the fact that this caught so many people by surprise speaks volumes about the way policy and actions that affect every employee and student on campus are being decided. There has been a ruse of “public input” meetings in each of the last two years, but in reality the die had been cast by the time the plans were presented.

The fee structure is another matter, students and employees have to take with a sense of bitter resignation. Students have a right to be outraged that the parking fee hike is so steep and that it is heaped on top of per-credit hour tuition and fee hikes. Employees of the State of South Dakota also have to ask how the university can justify a hike in parking fees during a year when state employees received no merit or cost of living raises. This is a particularly bitter pill to swallow. In short, it’s a slap in all of our faces. Perhaps it doesn’t look that way in the light of another world.

K.C. Jensen, Ph.D.Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Department