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The only two sure things in life
I never thought I’d say this, but right about now I can identify with the Internal Revenue Service. That’s because I see some similarities between the challenges faced by the federal taxing agency and those faced by the University of Idaho’s Parking and Transportation Services office as it plans to set its budget for next year.
Mention the IRS in polite company and some heated discussions can arise. Likewise, parking issues can create strong sentiments. We all want convenience in our lives but parking, with its rules, regulations, controls and cost, seems to fly in the face of convenience. Another similarity between the IRS and Parking and Transportation Services could be the difficulty of digging deeper into our wallets. But while this is painful, it is necessary to fund the services we provide. All of us hope that our hard-earned dollars are used judiciously and spent to improve the services from which we all benefit. The cost-benefit is high in our thoughts as we approach our planning.
The Parking and Transportation Services office has a mission: to optimize the use of the fees charged to provide a first-rate parking system with services and facilities that are safe, convenient, and cost-effective for UI. In these times, it can be challenging to operate as a self-sustaining service organization but that’s what we are, and how most of our peer offices operate across the nation. We are working proactively to improve financial stability and efficiently manage parking and transportation resources to meet the current and projected needs of the university and its extended community. Our vision is to be the best campus parking system in the country. However, I’d settle for a reputation for excellent communication and responsiveness to the campus community while providing good overall service.
To serve the university effectively, we must plan accordingly for the future and for projected growth. We strive to actively manage the parking system and base our operational decisions through campus conversations, data gathered through the use of surveys, monitoring and observation.
Our job is to conduct an ongoing assessment of the system and effect change to optimize its overall operation. Many of the proposed changes are also directly related to our goal of having all users of the parking system contribute.
Proposed changes to the parking and transportation system for 2008-09 are geared toward generating secure funding to address deferred maintenance, required improvements, and other capital project needs. The formal proposals were developed after careful deliberation and in conjunction with campus input and will be presented on campus in a series of forums.
Yes, the changes will involve fee increases, but we have worked diligently to minimize the financial impact for commuters.
Like taxes, increased parking fees will stir emotions, but as a self-funded part of the University of Idaho, we know that the changes are necessary.
Carl Root
parking and transportation services
Inform to avoid jail
Last year I was called to jury duty on a trial. The individual was charged with having sex with women while knowing that he was HIV positive. I didn’t ultimately serve on the jury but the individual was in fact convicted and sentenced to prison time.
It is my understanding of Idaho Code that having sex with someone when you are infected with any communicable disease is a felony.
The lady in this article would be required to inform her partners whether she felt comfortable doing it or not. Anything else may be a crime on the order of a felony. If her ex knew he had chlamydia he would be guilty of the same crime and she would be the victim.
Brig Young
materials science and engineering staff
Bad timing
Someone at The Argonaut is seriously asleep at the wheel. The Friday edition of the paper finally sent me over the edge when I saw “Sexual Assault Reported Thursday” in big, bold letters on the front page. Did anyone at The Argonaut not consider that there were thousands of potential Vandals on campus for the jazz festival? I don’t know about you, but seeing front-page articles like this might deter me, the high school student, from attending this university.
More to your credit, Argonaut, I cannot count the times in my four years here that I have seen articles like this published on days like Lionel Hampton and Vandal Friday — days when scores of high school students are in town.
It never fails that on big recruitment days the trusty Argonaut has a big article about some student(s) making the university look bad. Sadly, the online Argonaut archives backs up my assertions.
For example, searching the News Archive for the date of Vandal Friday (31 March) 2006, one finds such front-page, recruitment-worthy articles as “Prosecution declines to change McNally sex crime charge,” “Mubita guilty on all counts” (cf. the whole Mubita AIDS scandal) and “Increased student fees discussed at open forum”.
Now I am not saying to not report the news; I just think that most of these stories could wait a couple days.
UI has enough enrollment problems, and the last thing it needs is high school students returning to Hometown, USA, showing these “snapshots” of UI life to parents and friends.
In the future, Argonaut, simply use some tact and common sense; better yet, do some freaking journalism and think about what you are printing and its ramifications before the “Vandal Voice” frightens and disgusts potential students and their parents.
Torry J. van Slyke
senior, English, history and philosophy
Revenge of the …
I am a nerd. We usually set up chairs in the southwest corner of the Commons dining area.
One day, someone showed up and very pointedly told us to leave because we were scuffing up his wooden benches in that corner of the room. The general reaction was that as students we could place things in the room to suit our needs. We also felt that we probably did less damage than the people that used to walk over the benches before we took up residence there. That part of the room had been a common pedestrian shortcut.
When we got there every morning, we found things very pointedly put back into the original configuration, but as students in our building we put things back how we wanted them.
On Feb. 25, we found safety cones set up in a row along the bench and a wastebasket in our corner of the room. We of course went ahead with our usual civil disobedience and resumed putting things back how we liked them.
The same person who had confronted us about using that corner on our terms confronted us and told us we had to leave. I asked him who the building supervisor was.
“I am,” was his reply.
Someone has sent in a room reservation, as the nerds have a student club. We have asked that we be able to eat there, like we did in the corner of the room.
We will try to reserve the room on a daily basis. In the mean time, I will send a tactful letter to the building supervisor to see if we can come up with some sort of reasonable accommodation as far as using the Commons dining area on our terms.
Roderick “just call me Rod” Sprague IV
senior, plant soil and entomological studies
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