ASCMC Parking Scheme: Designed to Fail?

I'm glad to see that Tammy Phan took up my proposal last year to fix parking on campus, but what she's done with it is well, disappointing to say the least. It sounds as if it is designed to fail.

Let's go through an email from ASCMC on this very point. As I see here, here are the rules.

• You have to show up to a ASCMC Senate meeting, which, admittedly is a chore, with your student ID.
• There are only twenty spots being offered for a lot that has well over a hundred vacant spots. Those spots will be decided by a lottery, which is dumb. It should be decided by an auction. Making people pay what the garage will bear will almost certainly guarantee that we pay for whatever trash or detritus is left behind.
  
• You can't charge it to your account, which means you have to sell out cash or check and turn it over to ASCMC. (Yeah, that's safe with the same people who lost a speaker.)
• You have to have a CMC parking permit to get a Scripps parking permit, which makes absolutely no sense. Do we make Scrippsies pay to attend our parties? No? Why are we paying through the nose here?
• Freshmen are banned (again) from having a car on campus, which again makes absolutely no sense.
  
• Finally I totally trust ASCMC to administer this. Because you know they have never flubbed anything up before!
  

ASCMC Fixes Parking.. Well.. Sort Of...

Today we received an email from ASCMC. Here it is. I'll have more comments on it in a second.

Dear CMC,

The Scripps Garage parking program for CMC Students will begin soon! Scripps College has decided to grant us 20 parking spots in the garage, for what they are terming a “trial year.” Because we anticipate a more than 20 students will want a Scripps permits, there will be a lottery held at Senate (10:00 PM, in Bauer Forum) this Monday, September 20th. In order to be eligible, you must fill out the form below before 7:00 PM on Monday. Then, you or a proxy for you must attend the Senate meeting on Monday night.

A few important things:

• The permit costs $200 for the year, payable by cash or check (and we're investigating possibly by credit card) Note, this cannot be billed to your student account like your normal parking permit. It's not cheap, but it is the same price for Scripps garage spaces that is charged to 5C (but non-Scripps) faculty and staff. Details about payment to follow during the Senate meeting, so no need to have the money ready then.
• You must be eligible for and already have purchased a CMC parking permit. This means that freshmen cannot get a Scripps parking permit. We're sympathetic, but it's out of our hands.
• This year is a trial between ASCMC, CMC and Scripps and the survival of the program depends on appropriate use of the garage. This means it’s important that you don’t do things like 1) Leave trash behind 2) Ignore any signs or regulations within the garage 3) Abuse the garage in any way. If the program goes well, Scripps will reexamine the number of CMC parking spots and possibly grant more after this year, depending on availability.
• Don't try to cheat the system. There are cameras on the garage entrance as well as all around the garage and any CMCers who allow someone to follow them in with a car that does not have a Scripps permit will have their Scripps permit immediately revoked and be given a massive ticket. Campus Safety is also going to tow illegally parked cars this year (in the garage and elsewhere).
• If you are unable to attend Senate on Monday make sure to add a proxy when you submit the form below. Your proxy must have your ID card at Senate.
• The reason ASCMC is administering this part of the process is to cut down on the administrative burden on Scripps College and Campus Safety, which was something they required for this to go forward. In that regard if you have any questions about this process, Scripps College and Campus Safety would very much prefer you direct them to Tammy Phan or Chris Jones, and not them.