Editor, Daily Nexus,
I am writing in response to your editorial on parking, in which the Daily Nexus criticizes A.S. representatives for not attending the most recent Chancellor’s Special Advisory Committee on Parking public forum and implies that A.S. leadership on this issue has been lacking.
Your comments miss the mark in two ways:
First, although it is regrettable that no undergraduates were present at Monday’s public forum, it doesn’t mean student input doesn’t matter. CSACP has scheduled separate sessions with A.S. and with the Graduate Students Association, sessions which are taking place at meetings of the A.S. Leg Council and the GSA Assembly.
Second, undergraduate student leaders have been effective and constructive members of the committee. Both A.S. President Brian Hampton and Resident Housing Association President Jacob Haik have attended meetings regularly, speaking out on important issues and circulating follow-up e-mails to advance their arguments. But for Brian and Jacob’s leadership, the parking proposals would be even less friendly to student needs.
True, undergraduates do not have the same night/weekend parking fee lock-in deal as graduate students, but that is because A.S. enacted a self-imposed moratorium on lock-in fees. In the absence of that moratorium, I am sure that Brian would have and could have negotiated a fair deal for undergraduates.
For once, student representation is working.
SHAWN LANDRES