Over Winter Break I flew home to Chicago and left my car parked in A-Lot. Some young hoodlums (I assume they were not Dartmouth students) took advantage of the situation to break into my car. They found nothing valuable enough to steal but left me with over $1,000 worth of damage.
In numerous ways the administration tries to emphasize that Dartmouth is a family. We are supposed to support and help each other. In some areas this is the reality. But if a student has a car he frequently finds himself in an adversarial relationship with the College.
For $11 a term I get the piece of mind that comes with knowing that my car is open game to anyone in the general area. Hey! Youth of Hanover, if you feel like venting some frustration here is a parking lot full of cars parked nearly a mile away from the closest person who cares!
According to the police officer who wrote up my report, some automobiles have been left in A-Lot sitting on their axles - all four wheels stolen.
Maybe my whole attitude toward Parking Operations has been biased since before Fall term even began. I received a ticket for $50 dollars for parking in a "Core Area." It was the day before registration and I was moving into the Lodge. Who would have guessed that the Lodge was a "Core Area." I didn't think it was even considered part of the campus.
So the sum of my experience with Parking Operations is a cost to me, so far, of more than $1,072. Meanwhile, I am supposed to love my Dartmouth family?
I understand that there is a need to keep student automobiles from taking spaces that are reserved for professors and other College employees. But the attitude of Parking Operations seems to go beyond that goal. The ultimate goal seems to be one of revenue.
Many of the tickets distributed throughout the campus are in places like the cul-de-sac by the new dorms; professors and employees don't park there.
All of this really would not matter to me if I thought there was some service being provided to students. The fee of $11 which I pay every term to park in A-Lot provides me with little or no service. They light and plow the area and every once in a while a car from Safety and Security drives by.
Basically this means that any vandals have a clean, well lit place to work in.
Parking Operations should take some of that money from all those tickets and pay one person to man a guard booth at night in A-Lot. Perhaps it could even be turned into another source of revenue.
Such a guard could be constantly checking to see if cars parked in A-Lot had an A-Lot sticker. Also, visitors to Dartmouth could pay a fee to enter the lot.
Until something like this happens I will continue to feel that to Parking Operations, I am simply a source of revenue. Any steps that might be taken for my benefit are seen as simply too expensive.
