The UNC administration's recent decision on night parking, while entirely predictable, demonstrates again what a sham any invitation for student or community input is on this campus. Obviously, the University administration had long ago decided to create a new cash cow, night parking permits, and the entire charade of the TPAC meetings and debates was meant to arrive at this conclusion. When the TPAC, horror of horrors, actually listened to legitimate student concerns and arrived at an acceptable alternative recommendation, the University administration acted in their usual fashion, by going ahead and doing what they had planned to do all along. The decision was made (another shock) over Spring Break.
Wouldn't it be more intellectually honest and ultimately less expensive to do away with the show of hearings, committee meetings and invited student input, and simply pass down edicts from above as a fait accompli, since this is what they are, in reality? In the long run, we'd probably all be less bitter if the pretense of consideration were removed, and administrators openly espoused what everyone knows to be true: Student input is irrelevant to their decisions.
Neil Watson
Graduate Student
English
