Magnet Central: Weekly Magnet & Campus Fodder

Topic of Discussion this Week:





Parking Passes and Senior Parking for Magnet

Date: 10/3/06

Ever since I was a Freshman at Magnet, I've always wanted the priveledge of driving to school, and thanks to my job, I was able to afford that luxury this year as a Magnet senior. Of course this blessing doesn't come without some impediments from the administration that I find unnecessary.

The first topic of discussion is the parking permit that must be hung on all vehicles driven to campus. These devices are used in the corporate world as well as in many colleges and universities around the country, so they are not something that is uncommon in the real world. For the record, I support parking permits provided that they are enforced uniformly across the board, with a warning at the first violation, followed thereafter by fines that would go to support the school rather than the Scotch Plains police department. After all, it is parking on our campus, despite the fact that the police academy resides nearby.

The one problem I have with the whole system is that it is simply not uniformly enforced. I've been told from several close friends that enforcement has been stepped up in the Senior parking area, which is located at the parking lot across from West Hall, near where the buses drop-off and pick-up in the morning and afternoon. I have no problem with the police and/or administration ensuring that all cars in that parking lot have a permit, but this is where the problem arises. Enforcement is solely focused on the senior parking lot, not on the entire campus. If enough funding cannot be found to also patrol teacher parking lots searching for missing hang-tags, then there should be no patrolling at all. I was informed from a teacher than I will not name that he/she did not have a parking permit for four years and never had any problems at all.

The reasoning behind parking permits is of course to ensure the safety of all those on campus, that the only vehicles without tags are the ones parked in front of Baxel Hall; the visitors to our campus. Let's take for example a student who doesn't have a parking permit for one reason or another. It would be really easy for him or her to park in the teacher's lot and go undetected, assuming that there are no teachers around when the car is pulled in and pulled away from the lot. Not only that, but unauthorized visitors could park in the lot next to Magnet and even intrude into our school, getting let in by students close to the Fitness Center who have grown accustommed to letting in teachers and other faculty because the door is always locked. So in effect, checking the parking tags only on the senior lot is not only discriminatory but also useless.

The second issue for discussion is only addressed to Magnet and I suppose AIT seniors. The senior parking lot is located all the way on the other side of campus for us, causing us to have to drive around the entire campus to park our cars and walk long distances to get to our schools. Something should be done to allow Magnet seniors to park in the Magnet lot, and AIT students to park in the lot directly behind AIT. Considering that there are only 70 seniors at Magnet who could possibly drive, and only at most half that drive on a regular basis to Magnet, all that needs to be done for us would be to designate the back row for parking for Magnet students.

But then of course they couldn't perform their crackdowns on seniors without parking permits and continue their double standard of not checking the teacher lots for permits.

Kevin