L-permit will not cure parking ills

Parking is always a topic of discussion on campus, especially for those who want to park at night to go to the library or the Indiana Memorial Union. \nThe IU Student Association and Parking Operations are trying to help the situation with a new L-permit, which will allow students to park in A, C and E spots any time after 5 p.m. until 8 a.m. the next day.\nWhile the pass will only cost $40 a year, making them significantly less expensive than E-permits, the problem does not lie in the types of permits. It lies in the number of available spaces. \nWhen driving at night with any permit, some students must park in pay lots because of a lack of spots. \nWhen driving to the library at night, students must circle the parking lot for 15 minutes, stalking every person going to his or her car, hoping to grab a spot.\nThe L-permit was designed to help with this late night parking, partly to increase safety. In theory, students would no longer have to walk to their cars in the dark because of the L-permit. \nBut the new permit won't do much good. Because of the lack of spots, some students will still be forced to park far from the Union or the library. \nAnother reason the permit was proposed was to give off-campus students and students in greek houses a chance to park on campus at night without having to purchase an E-permit -- the most inexpensive permit now offered. The E-permit allows drivers to park at the stadium and at a few spots on campus during the day, which off-campus and greek students do not frequently do.\nBut parking operations rarely enforces the policy that to park in any spot after 5 p.m., a permit is needed. Many drivers park on campus with no permit after hours and do not receive tickets. \nThe University is not proposing an increase in parking spots, just offering ineffective permits. The L-permit is worthless if there is no parking spot to use it in or no officers to enforce parking rules.\nThe University can offer students all the permits it wants, but until more spots are available for these permit-holders, nothing will change. Parking will continue to be a frustration for students.\nStaff vote: 8 - 2 - 1\nyes - no - abstain