IU’s focus: students, not parking

Clark Kerr, a University of California-Berkeley economist with a particular knack for turning a pithy phrase, said it was the purpose of the modern university to provide “sex for the students, sports for the alumni and parking for the faculty.”

To remain competitive, the modern university has become more of a hospitality industry than an educational one.

No longer is it the top priority of the university to provide students with a top-notch education.

What is most important now is keeping alumni fat and happy, providing faculty with ample parking and keeping sports teams successful.

Currently, IU is debating whether to privatize its parking operations. Many faculty members are concerned this will cause an increase in price and a decrease in the quality of service.

As those of you who read this column know, I’m a big government liberal.

I firmly believe there are some things the government is better at providing
equitably than the private sector. What the public sector can provide more effectively are industries with complex revenue structures and difficult problems in equitable provision of service, like health care, that are best administrated by an institution that serves the public interest.

Parking is not among them.

A private company is perfectly capable of sitting someone in a booth and taking your money at the end of the day.

Besides, this argument belies the real point here.

The University shouldn’t be in the hospitality business. It never should have gotten its fingers mucked up in the parking pie to begin with.

So much of the time and effort of this University’s staff is spent maintaining things that do nothing to improve my education or college experience.

For instance, I use the Student Recreational Sports Center on a very regular basis, but I know many students who don’t. Why should they have to pay dues for a gym they’ll never use? Let the students who want it pay for it. Let the students who don’t save their money.

I rarely park on campus and don’t plan to. As I understand it, it’s a privilege usually reserved for graduate students and faculty. A bike, the bus and my own two feet serve me well enough most days. I suggest those who are so upset about losing their parking privileges do the same.

I applaud the efforts of the Board of Trustees to privatize the University’s parking operations. I hope this is an attempt to refocus the University’s goal of providing services to the students as opposed to hospitality to the faculty and alumni.
Then, maybe they can get around to providing us with that sex Kerr mentioned.

­— drlreed@indiana.edu