Private parking problems

Last February, IU Board of Trustees member William Strong proposed the privatization of the IU parking system. The proposed changes would affect both the Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses.

Though a proposal has yet to be presented to the trustees, several factions have already expressed their opposition to the proposed change, including the Bloomington Faculty Council and the Bloomington chapter of the Communications Workers of America.

Bloomington Faculty Council president Carolyn Calloway-Thomas listed the three primary concerns her group has with the proposal.

First, they believe parking operations in Bloomington are already well-managed and privatization jeopardizes this.

Second, they believe the trustees are trading long-term benefits for short-term gain.
Finally, they believe outsourcing the management of IU’s parking system will destroy the sense of community that exists between IU workers, students and faculty.

The concerns of the Communications Workers of America are more visceral. The IU plan is based on the successful privatization of the Ohio State University parking system, a transition which included “minimal job losses.” This is, of course, not the same as no job losses.

Finally, many students are concerned that the privatization of parking would raise prices for both parking passes and parking fines, prices which are already a burden on students paying for tuition and housing.

The potential privatization of parking was listed as one grievance in the anonymous “IU on Strike” proposal published late last year, reflecting student concern with the
proposal.

Students on the Indianapolis campus have even more cause for alarm at the proposal.
The majority of students commute to IU-Purdue University Indianapolis’ campus, which is located in downtown Indianapolis and includes minimal student housing.

Any increases in parking costs would amount to a de facto tuition hike for these students, who do not have the option to avoid any new parking regulations and costs.
There is no reason to believe the board’s assertion that they will listen to community concerns during the review process.

The majority of the board members were appointed by Gov. Mitch Daniels, who oversaw the privatization of an Indiana prison, a major toll road and, most savagely, Indiana’s public assistance program. Daniels and his underlings on the Board are loyal only to dollar signs.

The proposed privatization is the latest example of the Board of Trustees’ complete disregard for the concerns of students, faculty and workers at IU.

If the board was truly worried about budget shortfalls, they would consider cutting the obscene salaries of the empty suits in the University administration.

They might also consider ceasing the endless construction of high-cost apartment buildings for wealthy students.

The reality of the situation is the board is not concerned with making the University better for its students and workers.

They are concerned with turning the University into a profit-making venture which will continue to exploit students through perpetually rising tuition, exploit its faculty through ever increasing class sizes and course loads and exploit its workers through firings, privatization and stagnant wages.

­— atcrane@indiana.edu