LANDON PHILLIPS/Assistant Art Editor
STAFF EDITORIAL
One ticket. Two ticket. Three ticket. Four.
Counting on-campus parking tickets in Dr. Seuss fashion has become somewhat of a norm for several Pepperdine students these days.
We’d like to think some may be a result of a Public Safety officer’s boredom, but usually students know they deserve them. Many students respond to the matter by complaining, for the hundredth time, about the lack of on-campus parking that attributes to their “need” to park in the green zones without a carpool tag or up in the CCB without authorization.
News flash to all who dare to drive to class: there is parking on campus for every student. No, the revealing of a new parking structure with room for 700 cars is not happening, just yet. Students need to get over that dream and realize it may only be a reality for their grandchildren. Rather, it’s about time we improve the parking situation by changing our own situation.
To avoid those $40 parking expenditures or to refrain from experiencing an anxiety attack while driving around campus in circles waiting for that magical parking spot to appear, create a new plan.
If you live 10 minutes away from campus, do not leave 15 minutes before class. “SportsCenter” will be on when you get back, and the video games will be in the same spot you left them, so walk away from the TV. Bring along a cup of coffee (avoiding a trip to Starbucks) and make sure to be pulling into Seaver Drive at least 20 minutes before class begins. If you’re not a math person, that means leaving home at least 30 minutes in advance.
With an extra 20 minutes, don’t bother trying to find a spot on the hill along Seaver Drive unless it’s well before 8 a.m. Save precious time and gas by parking at Firestone Fieldhouse. It may not be neighbors with your religion or advertising class, but you also signed up for four years of walking when you came to Pepperdine.
If walking is just too unbearable, make friends with the shuttle drivers, who graciously drive around campus all day. Shuttles stop at Firestone Fieldhouse every 15 minutes, the most significant time being 13 minutes before the top of the hour.
If you haven’t caught on, these 20 minutes you have before class will get your car parked (legally) and you in your desk on time. Imagine that.
Many students find a way to look at the negatives of everything related to Pepperdine, so when the campus shuttle services come to mind, lack of room is often a common complaint.
The truth of the matter, though, is that no student is turned down from the shuttle. Just be ready to make a couple new friends when your nose has no choice but to be one inch from another person’s armpit or when you find your eyes not knowing what to do when “that one kid” has not been taught proper staring etiquette.
Of course it would be convenient to have a parking structure on campus, but at least our debt isn’t deeper in the red because of parking fees (excluding parking tickets). Students at nearby USC pay $60 a year for parking. That may not seem like much, but it’s $60 you’ll need for diapers while you’re paying off loans in 10 years.
UCLA charges commuter students $183 a quarter and residence hall students $225 a quarter for parking permits, equaling $732 or $900 a school year, respectively.
It’s way too easy to complain about parking, but it’s also easy to reach a solution without involving angry letters to the administration requesting a parking structure be built in a week.
Get acclimated with the Firestone Fieldhouse’s parking lot and shuttle stop. Soon you’ll be counting all the extra time you have. One minute. Two minutes. Three minutes. Four.
11-08-2007
