Park your car right here

Last Wednesday, the Bloomington Faculty Council rejected parts of the Parking Study Committee's proposal. Parts of the proposal included limiting the A and C parking permits for faculty and staff, and the possibility of a new transportation fee to allow free rides on all campus buses.\nAs the student newspaper we have to say it: Another fee? Any more fees, and we'll have students revolting in the parking lots.\nThe problem isn't the proposals. The problem isn't even the possibility of more fees. The problem is, well, the problem. \nHow long has parking been an issue? Sure, the BFC is definitely in the right to reject the proposals, especially because the A and C permit limitation will honk off graduate students (an already marginalized campus demographic), and the extra fee will honk off everybody else. \nBut something has to be done. \nOur suggestion? Do something. We have some ideas. \nSuck it up, find the money and build some parking garages. Myths of a lot near the library or behind the business school have been floating around for years -- let's make it happen.\nLimit E and D passes. If someone has to be disadvantaged, shouldn't it be a group to which we all belonged at one point? It would stink, sure, but it would be temporary. Opening up a little of the dorm parking for commuters and those who must drive to campus every day would ease the problem.\nCome up with a way to build a remote parking lot for weekend-only drivers. People who don't need their cars except to travel home on the weekends or use them to do once-a-week grocery shopping should be able to park them somewhere besides the E lots at Memorial Stadium. And especially if this new transportation system goes into effect -- letting everyone ride the campus buses for free -- remote parking would be the ideal option for students who only use their cars every now and then. They'd have a shuttle for the weekend, when they need to pick up their cars. That way, those students who actually use the Express buses every day to get to class will use the E spaces and some of the parking problems on the actual territory of the campus would be alleviated.\nBuy one of those funky automatic car parking garages. They exist, even through they're wickedly expensive and wildly impractical. It would be a selling point in the freshman recruitment materials besides -- everyone now -- the beautiful campus. \nBut do something about this problem. No solution will totally solve every aspect of the problem, and any solution is going to make some segment of campus society mad, but something is better than nothing. \nWe know that the University has plenty of other issues to tackle -- tuition, the new science building, keeping the athletic department afloat. But parking has been a pain in the trunk for years on end, and it's an issue that affects the daily life of students. It's a matter of daily hassle for students, faculty and staff, and it's about time something is done.