AU’s Department of Public Safety is on a high horse.?Under the guise of concern for the neighbors that surround AU, Public Safety leaves school grounds to ticket students, faculty and staff parked off campus.? As members of the AU community, we are to comply with the Good Neighbor Policy, a nonsensical and fundamentally flawed regulation that mandates our parking on campus.? Of course, as is the case with most Public Safety conduct here a AU, the motive lies not in supposedly benevolent intentions but instead in their desire to generate an ever-increasing sum of capital from the student body in conjunction with an unattainable quest for power.?
I first became aware of the Good Neighbor Policy only a week ago, after receiving a seventy-five dollar ticket for parking down the hill from campus.? Upon calling Public Safety, I was informed that my ticket was given as the result of this policy and that the purpose of the policy was to avoid crowding the street parking for residents.? My car was parked in front of a field, still I was told, this did not matter; I am not to park anywhere except in the Nebraska parking lot when I am in the area for university-affiliated activity.?I then inquired about the possibility of obtaining the signatures of every resident adjacent to this field stating that they would not mind my parking there.? Even so, I was told, I would still be ticketed.?
This leads one to consider the primary motives for the behavior of Public Safety.? If this policy were in place so as to not upset the neighbors, why would I then not be allowed to park there if all of the neighbors stated that I could?? At the time when I received my ticket, there were some twenty or so open parking spaces on the street on which I was parked.? Could this really be to satisfy the neighbors or could the unfathomable be true: AU wants me to park only where it costs twice as much as a street meter does.?What is my incentive to park in the Nebraska parking lot when I am in class for an hour and fifteen minutes but the meters there will only take payments in one-hour increments??
The truth is, despite the office telling me otherwise, this is all about the elements that comprise Public Safety demeanor: a hunger for money and a quixotic feeling of power.? It is the reason why we see Public Safety’s little acolytes ticketing cars at 4:55 p.m. in the Nebraska lot.? It is the reason why it is demanded that I move my car when I am not blocking campus traffic when talking to a friend for a mere moment.? It is most certainly the reason why someone gets into his or her car, leaves AU grounds and goes scavenging for cars with the school’s stickers on them.?
It seems strange that the university would go out of its way to discriminate against members of its own community, particularly those who proudly display such membership on their vehicles.? Proud as I am to be a student here, I am strongly considering removing my AU sticker not because I fear yet another ticket but because I do not wish to advertise my membership here when this is the manner in which I am treated. Driving is a privilege, not a right — but in exercising that privilege, we should all have the right to park wherever it is that we please, so long as it is in accordance with local street signs.? The residents are already protected from overcrowding on the streets; such is the purpose of restricted two-hour parking zones.? ?
I am glad that I will be graduating in the spring because I dread the extension of AU’s Good Neighbor Policy, which will no doubt include the provision that students are to purchase all of their food at the Eagle’s Nest so as not to crowd the registers at the local supermarket.? Perhaps Public Safety would like to mandate that we all purchase our books for classes at the on-campus bookstore, not for the sake of generating more money but out of the well-intentioned desire to ensure that Web sites who sell those books do not have more customers than they can ship to.? Yes, Public Safety is on a high horse.?Unfortunately, no one has told them that this horse is nothing more than a little pony, low to the ground as the scooters on which they ride. ?
Josh Loigman Senior, SPA
