I really do wish the SRC was something other than a figurehead that the Administration at this school can point to when students complain that no one listens to them, but the are not. They are useless. The only thing they have done that I am aware of is to start a recyling drive. I don't think I'm in the minority when I say that recyling is not one of the things that I think is a priority issue. Recyling is good - hug a tree and blah blah blah. But to spend so much time and effort on setting up recyling when there are real issues that effect students every day as they go to school just shows what a useless entity the SRC really is.

I'm sorry, but for any student that has a car there is one issue that has been a problem for years that has recently been made even worse - the parking issue. The administration has been aware of the problem for years and has done nothing - I first came here when this was still Ricks College, and even back then there were parking issues (especially arround the north side of campus and next to the Clark and Smith buildings). Now years later and a HUGE increase of students later, the administration still sticks their head in the sand and does nothing as the problem grows even worse.

The recent changes with the city ordinances with parking on the streets arround campus has taken many parking spots away even while enrollment rises yet again. The administration's response? A new website "Drive or Walk" that encourages students who live close to campus not to drive to class. If I were to suggest a solution like this to a problem in one of my Business classes I would not only fail the assignment, I would be laughed out of class. But evidently since we are privledged to come to school here, the fact that there is a real problem with parking is something we should just ignore/put up with as part of the price we must pay or something.

One of the things mentioned on the "walk or drive" site is that administration is aware of the lack of parking (especially on the north side of campus) and that there is not room to build a parking lot on the north side of campus. They then go on to say that "Given the high cost and the fact that several parking lots on campus are underutilized, the university has chosen to not build a parking garage at this time."

As far as some parking lots being underutilized, yes there is one that is. The one way up on top of the hill that no one wants to park at since you have to walk a long way to get to even the closest building. Hmm - I wonder why that one doesn't get used? Maybe that parking lot would be used if there was some sort of bus service to the other side of campus like they have at ISU in Pocatello, but we don't have that here. If that parking lot is such a good place to park, why don't we take away all the "A" parking spaces for 2 weeks in January and Febuary and have all the administration have to fight for a spot with all the students and we will see how fast that parking lot STILL will not fill up.


According to BYU-Idaho's site there are 3,821 parking spaces available on campus - which basically means that when they finish the new auditorium and have an event that fills it to capacity, every single parking space on campus will have to be used - and that is IF every single car averages 4 people in it. Sounds like good planning to me!

The administration also says that they have no room or no place to put additional parking on the north side of campus. I hate to even mention it since I remember when Ricks College had a really good football team, but isn't there a unused outdoor football field and track just sitting there and only being used occasionally by runners? Runners that could use the fieldhouse in the Hart Building? There is also a nice big quad on the north side of the Spori building between the Kirkham and the Snow buildings, that while it may look nice, does not really serve much of a purpose for most of the year other than being a bunch of sidewalk for the groundspeople to keep clear of snow. Seems to me that there are a few diffent places on the north side of campus that would give us additional parking. The Administration just thinks that keeping their heads in the sand is easier.