LU struggles to provide convenient parking to students and faculty

Finding a convenient parking spot at Lindenwood is not an easy task if your class is in any of the buildings on the heritage (main) part of campus. More parking has been made available on the out skirts at Harmon Hall, the Spirit Shoppe and the J. Scheidegger Center for the Arts, but students do not feel they have time to walk across campus. To compensate for not finding close parking, students create illegal parking spots that result in parking tickets.

“There is usually no choice but to make my own spot,” said Liz Bergmann, a student in housing. I try to walk from my house to classes, but sometimes I run out of time. When I do drive the parking lot is just too packed, so I have to make my own spot.”

“Last year was really annoying, but this year is just ridiculous,” said Val Krause, a resident on campus. “During the week it is nearly impossible to find a spot on campus.”

Many resident students choose to drive to class instead of walking causing many spots to be unavailable to staff and commuter students.

“I live on the Heritage side of campus and walk to class because it’s impossible to find a spot if I go to lunch and come back,” said senior Tiffany Sellech.

English professor Ann Canale  said, “I think people should be encouraged to walk, bike, skateboard, etc. instead of driving to destinations which could be reached in that way…. Commuter students need accessibility to parking near classroom buildings before students who have spaces available near their dormitories.”

Faculty parking, currently not available at Lindenwood, is present at several area universities.  Maryville University has five separate lots designated for faculty.  At St. Louis University the lots are broken up based on distance from campus.  Ann Weinerth, communication director at SLU said that 10 years ago the university built parking garages to accommodated future demand.  Now SLU runs a regular shuttle from the garages to the main campus.  Depending on which lot a student chooses, a parking pass ranges from $280 to $1,410 a year.

Assistant Professor Erica Blum said, “Because Spellmann is a hubbub it makes it extra hard for everybody. They should make other sections at busy areas for staff and commuter parking and have someone police the area to ticket those people who shouldn’t be there.”

Lindenwood’s student parking passes cost $2 for a resident and $3 for a commuter. Both Maryville and St. Charles Community College (SCC) have parking figured into the total tuition cost. Washington University offers their faculty the ability to buy parking passes.  These passes, sold for $1,047, allow staff to park in specified zones during the daytime hours.

Assistant Professor of Communication Ed Voss said, “Parking in the Heritage part of campus is really tough. I think they should raise the parking fee and build a parking garage.”

However, the public safety offices of Maryville and SCC said they often receive complaints from students regarding parking.  Both said that despite the claims that parking is tight there are always lots at the fringes of campus with spots available.

Lindenwood recently hired Kurt Smith, an ex-policeman, to help with parking violations. Smith has since instituted a three strike policy that gives students a warning on the first offence, then a boot on the second and a ticket on the third.  Vehicles continuing to commit violations are subject to impounding.

“Everyone has really gotten the message.” Smith said.

Since September, Lindenwood security has issued 205 parking violations across campus, compared with 224 tickets written during fall 2009. In spring 2010, when the new enforcement measures began, 490 were given out.

Smith predicts that after Christmas break there will be a new surge of violations, which will renew concerns over the parking situation.  It is clear that as the number of cars on campus continues to increase so will student frustration.

 

 

Professors opinion on LU parking

Students are not the alone in the fight for more convenient parking; professors have a negative opinion on the situation also. All of the professors that were interviewed asked to remain anonymous. This is what they had to say.

Professor of Literature: “I sprained my ankle pretty bad last semester and had to be on crutches. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask the doctor for a temporary handicapped parking pass. I found myself having to parks blocks away from the building I taught in and then carry all of my books and luggage while hopping on crutches. After a couple of days, I decided it would be smarter to park in front of the building, unload my equipment, then come back out to park my car.”

“Faculty should have their own parking lot or have parking spots. The university has made accommodations for adjunct faculty but have not made any for the staff that are here full-time; it is not right.”

Professor of Literature: “The parking is fine if you get to campus before 8am. If you decide to get here after then, forget about it; you better plan on walking.”

“I need the exercise anyway, but some professors are pushing 80; I worry about them.”

Professor of Business: “Too many students come to class late with the excuse of not having anywhere to park.”

“I understand that the University has tried to make accommodations by making new lots by the new art building and Harmon, but nobody wants to park way over there especially when it’s raining or cold.”

Professor of Education: “I do not want to answer any questions. The situation gets me too riled up; I need to keep my blood pressure down.”

 

College party leaves 12 students with suspected drug overdose

Over the weekend, one man and 11 women were rushed to the hospital from a college party in Roslyn, WA. The students were said to have been incoherently vomiting after having about two drinks from a community punch bowl at the party. Police were called after a girl was found passed out in the back seat of a car at a nearby grocery store. Officials then found students passed out in the back yard and on the floor at the party held at a student’s parent’s residence. Parents were not at residence while party was in session.

The victims are underaged  freshmen  attending  Central Washington University.  Officials are awaiting blood test results to determine any drugs left in the victim’s systems and suspect the students were unknowingly drugged with either ecstasy or rohypnol (roofies, the date rape drug.)

This story has become nation wide receiving coverage from ABC News Now, Fox News, and CBS.  Questions have been raised as to whether certain students have information about whether or not students were drugged, what was the intent of drugging so many students, and  if there was a manufacturing problem with the alcohol itself.

Legalities and liabilities have also been questioned in this case. Should the parents be held with civil liability for the child’s actions? Should the school enforce some sort of disciplinary judgment for the students involved? And, will the students be charged with reckless endangerment if news breaks that this was supposed to “just be a prank.”

Brett Ballman, P.E major and student assistant, says, “This is devastating and the students obviously did not know what they were doing. However, the parents should not be held accountable because the students were most likely 18 and above; this makes you an adult and furthermore makes you responsible for your legal actions. “

“The school should also not be involved. It was an off-campus party that was held on the weekend. The most the school should be able to do is educate the students on precautionary measures that should be taken while out partying,” says Ballman.

Danielle Mayer, senior psychology major, agrees, “Parents should not be held responsible and the school has no jurisdiction to get involved.”

To add to the story, a male student was found at the party having sex with one of the nearly unconscious women. The boy was later found to be the girl’s boyfriend.

Rachel Moore, freshman education major, says,”That is sick. I do not think he should be charged legally, given the fact that I am presuming he was a bit waisted himself, but he should have more respect fo his girlfriend.”

Another freshman who asked  to remain anonymous because he is also an underaged college drinker said, “Girls need to be more careful. You always here about the crazy things that go on at college parties. It is your own responsibility to be aware that what you hear about, could one day happen to you. You are the only one that can prevent it.”



• Things for students (especially freshman females) to think about before heading to a party:

Common sense ladies…We all have heard the rules…

1) Go to parties in groups

2) Do not let your friends leave with people you just  met

3) Never take drinks from people you do not know; if you are offered a drink WATCH the drink trail.

Take these three simple rules seriously.

It is absolutely tragic what happened to these students but it is all the more reason as to why we need to be more cautious. It is not the “Brady Bunch” age anymore. There are real dangers when entering our world now a days. Learn from others mistakes, become educated and protect yourself.

Changes to Lindenwood Website

First and foremost, the site needs content. Students need to be assigned to different niches and complete work for the site. Without content for the site, it will never be able to go further.

Our layout is bland and too similiar to other student websites. If we want ours to stand out, it needs to be original. We could even switch the front page’s layout as we get new stories. This would be very similiar to what print newspapers and magazines already do.  I would also like to see the boxes go away. It would look better if we differentiated between sections with lines, different size in text, pictures,  videos, or colors.

The main colors need to be changed. Blue and orange are not even our school colors so I am perplexed as to why they were chosen for the site. However, I do not think the colors should simply be the colors of our school. I would like to see something very simple and clean like a white backround with colored letters. Or, have a lot of grey tones with emphasis on brightness of pictures.

We could also be more creative when using ads. The purpose of the ad is to draw business to the company. If more students are going to the businesses that are advertising with us, then we could start charging more for ads which will essentially bring more leeway for the site.

This is how I would start off changing the site.

Ideas for online newspaper

idsnews.com

This site has a “local news” bar at the top which makes the site become more likely to be looked at. Not only can the students find out news happening on campus, they can also find out news going on in the community around them. I like how many bars it has also. There is the “local” bar at top, the bar that shows what’s on the site and others that break up each section. They make the content easy to read and more navigateable. Another idea that is good on their site is the fact that the only thing that moves on their site are the ads. The site can gain more revenue from ads by mentioning not only how much traffic they get on the site, but also how much an eye catcher they are.

ubyssey.ca

This site is similiar to ours in the way that they probably do not have much content. Fortuantely, they made up for this with big pictures, richer, bolder text and fun colors. This site does not have much news but it still brings the reader in to be curious about what is there. I like how the different sections have their own medium sized picture with them.

nyunews.com

The front page of this site is not that interesting to me. However, when you click on a story, it goes to the full story PLUS the tv station’s coverage on the same story. I like this idea. This shows that the two departments are working together and not seperately. The front page was easy to navigate through without alot of pictures, then as you went “inside” more pictures and videos were there.

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