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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 2004)
• NE| E BAITAl| lan ■plai o 'id Bauder CIATED Aggielife The Battalion Page 3 • Tuesday, September 28, 2004 PAGE BY JULIE BONE Yeeeeeahh... if you could get me that TS report n light of recent rocky TS-Aggie relations, Weis says students need understanding ^ NBC chm y of the “Tosi ■>y to announcij be succeed ost Conan or thousand succession Alone figure trudges mile after mile, bombarded th the rays of an unrelenting sun. As her boots well on smoldering asphalt, she pauses to quench le thirst with a swift sip from a hipside water problem for\: ohle. Armed only w'ith a badge, a citation printer networks ! ^ a duty to uphold regulation, the Transporta- en to movefc on Services employee pauses to acknowledge her lot. igned Leno extension 'i Mg way from the pages of a misunderstood West- they asked comfortable He knew tha O’Bnen be ly if Leno kept initely. few years at ilcd the pens? -David Lettei critical respect Letterman scant; ck. n that coocli night” avera ie previous)! Late Show" 4.2 million.: e year before O’Briea 41. He debuted in n September l 1 reaches 2.5 night, domiit ew months on to become a q! ciir'pAcc By Jimmy Hissong THE BATTALION urroundings. The jeers from a crew of boisterous idividuals are a verbal reminder that her tale is a :rn desperado. “Every one of us has experienced some sort of egative attitude from a student,” said a parking at- ndant forTS who wished to remain unidentified. We’re just out here trying to do a job. We aren't nit to get anyone.” With the issuance of nearly 30,000 citations an- lually in previous years, Texas A&M TS is a vis ile entity on campus. TS does not keep a record fthe number of complaints it receives, but the Call section of The Battalion was flooded ithparking-related submissions from unsatisfied tudents the first weeks of the fall semester. But ineman thinks there are better days ahead. ■Negative opinions regarding TS and this year’s wers, a 2 pd w parking plan carried by students could be at- nbuted to a lack of understanding,” said Rod Weis, lirector for TS. While TS employees may believe that in the last two years they have shed the old Parking, fransit and Transportation Services image immor- e of ambition alized in yellow block letters on navy blue shirts. !he recent instatement of a number of new park ing policies and bus route alterations has put them :kin the limelight. ‘1 don’t really see what was wrong w ith the old former “Sate ystem,” said Austin Sheen, a junior finance major, icdy writerw^uringhis daily walk from Sbisi dining hall to hi aratReed Arena. Sheen said that even though a number of routes an from near Sbisa to Reed Arena, by the time he waits for a bus, it’s much quicker for him to walk. Aided by familiarity with an old and argu- LIIVA lablyoutdated parking system. Sheen joined the auks of students questioning TS’ motives for » the new system, xetary Donal 1 f insurgent i voting w otc would be repeated assertion the chanct to be c vehave it is achiev the op| mi ingel fully ci will s nal co : said. VLEJANDRA MARTINEZ - The Battalion Even those who inhabit the gray area between TS employment and student classification have ques tioned some of the aspects of the new parking plan. A TS student worker who wished to remain uniden tified was skeptical of Weis’ plan at first. “For the first two weeks of school, 1 couldn’t park anywhere near Bus Ops, even though 1 worked there,” she said. In Fall 1999, students at the Georgia Institute of Technology approached their director of parking services, Weis, with similar questions and com plaints. Parking fees and citation fines had risen to reflect increased debt resulting from the construc tion of parking decks and maintenance costs to pre serve those facilities. Unaware of the necessity for the increase, annoyed students addressed Weis with inflated tuition statements, said Allen Corry, associ ate director of parking for Georgia Tech. “We've had a blast while becoming better equipped for ministiy.” Here are just a few of the 157 Texas A&M University alumni currently studying at Dallas Seminary. DALLAS THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY training you can trust.., LEADERS you can follow toll-free 866-DTS-WORD www.dts.edu EVAN O'CONNELL - The Battalion Left: Director of TS Rod Weis answered questions at a which serves as an overflow lot for any permit holder, parking forum in early September on campus. Above: Emp- "It's important for the customers of (TS) to understand the ty spaces are a rare find in PA 100, around Reed Arena, challenges we face," Weis said in a recent interview. “Once new parking procedures and policies were understood and explained to the communi ty, the changes that were implemented were well received,” Corry said. A&M’s previous campus parking plan, in which students and faculty had the option to park in any of several open lots, was essentially scrapped when the new plan took effect this fall. After identifying parking preferences over the In ternet, students and faculty were issued permits indicating a specific designated parking lot. A single lot, PA 100 (near Reed Arena) now serves students and faculty as an optional overflow re gion when their designated lot is full. Complaints regarding the parking plan and bus services have not fallen on deaf ears. “Many of the comments and complaints we re ceived at Georgia Tech are the same that we are re ceiving here,” Weis said. “We are out there count ing and gathering data four to five times a day.” Since classes began this semester, TS has made steps to modify its parking plan to accommodate more students and faculty. Twice, students on the waiting list have been given the opportunity to trade their parking permit for a more preferable one. “We moved 2,200 students (to their desired lots) a week earlier than anticipated,” Weis said. Weis said he and TS intend to continue develop ing the parking plan throughout the semester. “This is an incremental plan,” he said. “Physicists have been working on that time and space thing, but we still can’t blast any lot with 3,000 extra cars.” As TS continues to reshape parking at A&M with its plan, the woes of at least one student has been alleviated. “After a little while, some changes were made,” See Plan on page 4 Our Family Wants To Meet Your Family! r.r/rvf physicians Family Centered Care For All Ages 2210 29th Street in Bryan • 821-6300 1512 Holleman in Col!eve Station • 693-3313 pflPAJOBNs Now Delivering Until SAM! 601 University (Northgate) 846-3600 Open until 3 AM! 1100 Harvey Rd. 764-7272 Lobby Open until 10 PM 1740 Rock Prairie 680-0508 Lobby Open until 10 PM Order Online! www.papajohns.com I PARTY PACK 4 Large 1 Topping Pizza’s I ONLY $27.99 i Gig ‘em! Proud Sponsor Of Texas A&M Athletics and The 12 th Man Rewards Program! 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