ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
NICOLE RUSSO

In response to a parking controversy that turned Lot D into commuter and faculty parking, displacing over 100 residents with parking permits for the lot, the Student Government Association (SGA) wrote a proposal for changes to the situation that has been submitted to campus administration.

“We, as a student body, put the ‘ball in their court’ so to speak,” junior Steve Moscaritolo, president of SGA, said.

The new proposal, which was made public to students through a campus-wide e-mail on Jan. 30 offers two courses of action. The first proposed solution would, as stated in the College’s existing parking policy, return the off-campus Park & Ride Lot to its status as an overflow parking lot for both residents and commuters. All students with a pass for Lot D would be allowed to return to their original lot.

If this plan is not acted upon, SGA proposed that a security guard be assigned to Park & Ride to properly guard student vehicles at all times and to provide escorts. Under this plan, residential students that were displaced from their assigned lot will receive preferential parking in the lot closest to their dorm for the 2007-2008 academic year.

According to Moscaritolo, copies of the proposal were delivered to President Donald Bain, Dean of Students Rick DeJesus and Assistant Director of Safety and Security Steve Potter last week. Additionally, the proposal was made viewable to students on the SGA website.

Moscaritolo said that he had received an “initial response” from DeJesus on behalf of Bain; however, at press time, both Moscaritolo and Bain had declined to make this response public.

“Hopefully, we can get it on the web site very soon for everyone to view, but Erica [Quist], myself and the rest of SGA need a little bit of time to digest it and see if there’s anything else we can do for the student body first,” Moscaritolo said.

“The College is likely to act on several of the suggestions,” DeJesus said. “Since the suggestions have fiscal and logistical considerations that have not yet been fully evaluated, I cannot make a definitive statement about which suggestions will be acted on.”

DeJesus also stated that the response was made after speaking with Mike McCarthy, director of Safety and Security. He said he found it “appropriate” to give SGA time to discuss the proposal and share it with students before he made specific comments regarding it.

Following widespread dissent amongst students in the wake of the changes to Lot D, which were announced in a campus-wide e-mail on Jan. 12, an “emergency” Assembly meeting was held the night of Jan. 15. Students were invited to bring their concerns and suggestions regarding the parking issue; DeJesus and Potter were also in attendance.

“At the end of that highly attended meeting, [SGA Assembly Chair Erica Quist] asked every single person to vote on their top three solutions going forward in order to make things a little more simple,” Moscaritolo said. “After seeing that feedback, Erica created a draft of the proposal, in the most professional way possible, and after a few revisions, the SGA Executive Board voted to approve it.”

Students expressed mixed opinions regarding the proposal, and offered their own ideas.

“I think it’s a good idea,” sophomore residential student Alyssa Scott said. “It might also help if they got a shuttle to and from Park & Ride for commuters who had to park there. They’d be there only during the day when it’s light out, and you’re not putting people at risk by having residents park there at night.”

Sophomore residential student Christine Manning agreed on the proposed solutions.

“I like the idea of having a security guard in Park & Ride,” she said. “It’ll make it safer for the cars there, and that’s what everyone’s most concerned about, having their car broken into, because it’s happened in the past.”

Junior Tom Carozza, a commuter, expressed discontent with the proposed solutions and offered an alternate plan.

“I do not agree with this plan.  You are giving into the resident students who complained about leaving Lot D,” he said. “I understand many of them work and such and have to travel, so they should have to fill out a form explaining why they need access to Lot D, and grant only those ones who absolutely need it to park there.  This way, commuters can still park there which is very convenient in my opinion, and the residents who need access to their car regularly can park there too.”

Moscaritolo encouraged students to continue to bring their ideas and concerns regarding parking and other issues to the SGA Executive Board.

“I hope everyone continues to utilize the structure Student Government has set up as we continuously ask for feedback on any critical student issues,” Moscaritolo said. “If we managed to get school officials to meet together, discuss, and at least reconsider a previous action, then we have done our jobs as student representatives very well.”

Although he was pleased that SGA took action on behalf of students, sophomore Matt Petrosino still believes administration will not take immediate action.

“The parking proposal by SGA does reflect what we said in the meeting,” said Petrosino, who had previously collected signatures on a petition asking for residents to be permitted to park in Lot D, “but residential students with D-Lot passes are still in Park and Ride and I don’t see any change coming anytime soon.”

Sophomore Vinny Betts agreed with these sentiments.

“I would love to see any of these actions to be undertaken, but I see the reality as this; no matter what action is taken, if any is taken at all, [the administration] still did not talk to the student body before any action was initially taken,” he said. “The College does not seem to respect its student body. Based on what has already happened, it seems highly unlikely that any of this will ever take place.”

Although he was “impressed” by the manner in which SGA has handled the situation, DeJesus cautioned that even if Fisher adopts the changes suggested, the parking problem will not disappear overnight.

“As you can imagine, this situation is not an easy one to resolve since any ‘solution’ is bound to inconvenience some segment of the campus population and those who are inconvenienced will protest that inconvenience,” he said. “I imagine that even if the College adopts one or more of the suggestions, there will still be discontent.”

nmr08083@sjfc.edu