Current students deserve parking priority

By Katy Mulvaney     3/26/09 7:00pm

If you're anything like me, getting a parking spot along the first row of West Lot can pretty much make your week. One of my dreams, unlikely to be fulfilled now that my time at Rice is coming rapidly to a close, is to someday get the spot right by the single gate.However, this past week my goals were not nearly so high, and they were still dashed. With the parking gates thrown open to the world at large, I was lucky if I could find a spot between the first and second bus stop.

I understand that it's alumni weekend and that all of the people who come in for Beer Bike need a place to park, but it galled me to see the Visitors' Lots not only still clamped down but echoingly empty as I circled West Lot, desperate for any parking spot at all. The administration risked booting students out of West Lot despite the fact that we are shelling out ever-increasing premiums to park there. That resident students lot is our space, and we've paid handsomely for the privilege of always having a spot to park.

The administration could have thrown open the Visitors' Lots (you know, for all the visitors on campus) and eaten the money it could have made charging for parking if it really felt strongly about not gouging the alumni. In fact, it would have looked better to the alumni big spenders to open up the closest lots. However, the administration instead decided to massively inconvenience the students who had already put in their money.

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This attitude toward students is the very thing driving much of the alumni to laugh in the faces of the Annual Fund callers. Prioritizing prospective students and alumni is, overall, a poor long-term strategy. Every year I feel less endeared to Rice's administration and thus less likely to give in subsequent years.

The best way to build the alumni base of support - especially among recent alumni where the numbers are abysmal - is to care for the students when they are at Rice. If recent alumni believe the administration will use their funds to help the current students, they are much more likely to donate.

However, if they look back on their own time and see how food budgets were slashed despite the fact that they were prepaid for by students or if they remember that we were the first to lose our parking spaces to accommodate visitors, no money will be returning to Rice. If they think the administration commandeered our funds for their own money system or that Baker and Will Rice Colleges' request for the remodeling of their colleges were basically ignored or the newspaper subscriptions were summarily cut - well, let's just say I won't be giving them a generous percentage of my first paycheck.

I'm shocked that I need to point this out, but the university should prioritize its current students - over anything else.

The economy may be taking some hits, but if the university wants to survive the coming recession the best plan is not full of partially-funded, multimillion-dollar buildings; rather, it should be to invest in what has always been Rice's greatest resource: its students. Dial back the highly-mocked and uninspired "Who Knew?" ad campaign, put a "hiring freeze" on new construction and stop having a massive tailgate for every single football game. Instead, make students' needs your priority.

The worst part is that at this point, we're just asking for the three basic needs - ones we've already paid for, no less - food, shelter and parking. These could be paid for out of the funds freed up by the cancellation of an ad campaign that embarrasses us, or a cessation of construction, or any of the obvious things the administration lets continue.

It's time for a new call to conversation. How about another office hour this semester, Leebron? That way I won't have to ambush you on the Inner Loop again, at least.

Katy Mulvaney is a Baker College senior.

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