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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
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ly if Leno kept
initely.
few years at
ilcd the pens?
-David Lettei
critical respect
Letterman
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Late Show"
4.2 million.:
e year before
O’Briea 41.
He debuted in
n September l 1
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to become a
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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,”
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