Another one bites the dust

The Lunatick's Ravings

Another one bites the dust.

Unless you happen to take classes in the HSC or have friends that do you probably know nothing about the place. Well up until Monday it was the only place on campus where students had priority parking. There was a little known student lot located on Level 2 of the HSC. Used quite often. To the point that if you didn't get their by 8am you couldn't find a space. I used to use it quite often when I had the dreaded 8:20am classes. It was actually faster for me to walk from Humanities. Go under the bridge to this lot, than to wait for the Commuter bus to the south-P lot (Lets get serious though I used to walk from Javits to South-P and usually beat the bus, only by a minute but that is still pathetic). Then in 1997 the lot became a "H-permit" lot. What that meant was the all important medical students wanted the parking lot to themselves, So they somehow successfully petitioned to create a new type of parking lot to exclude everyone but them. Initially forgetting the nursing students and the students of the SHTM until they rightfully bitched that the lot is for them also. So the lot became an HSC lot only and only a letter from the dean could get you the coveted "H-permit". With out this letter you could produce 10 forms of ID's exams you name it to prove you were a student of the HSC and parking office in their usual manner could care less. Even with neh newly restricted parking lot things were so bad they made it a 24 hour lot and they actually ticketed the lot after 5pm. Although the lot was usually packed and had many people parking illegally in it their was room for 200-300 cars in the lot (my rough estimate). What this meant was for 24-hours a day one group of students had a parking lot actually within convenient walking distance of their classrooms. OH MY GOD THIS EXISTS AT STONY BROOK!!!!!!!!!!

Well as of Friday the 12^th at midnight not anymore, the H lot became the latest casualty of progress. Gated off to build a "Linear Accelerator". But that's not all folks, they also destroyed half of the Staff lot above it. So now HSC students are faced with 2 choices pay $22.50 a month for parking or park in the south-p lot. Well for some students there is no choice. Some of my clinical rotations begin or end at 11pm and others at begin or end at 7am. The buses run from 8am to 11pm (but I have never seen a bus near the HSC after 10:30pm). Seems my choice and that of my classmates is clear. I don't think they are going to make the buses 24hours just for a few hundred students with 24-hour rotations. Did we get any assistance in purchasing these cards Hell no! But what would I expect from SB.

First off we got 2 weeks notice of the closing of the lot and only with a tentative closing date. It became definite the week of 8^th and we were notified by fliers placed on our cars only if they were parked in that lot. Then we were told we could go on a waiting list to buy parking cards. Waiting list yeah, like everything else on campus the classes would be over before they settled that. So here I found something unusual, the Dean of the SHTM intervened and we came off the waiting list onto a pre-approved list for 24-hour parking lot access cards. Four days before the lot closed, but hey for stony brook that is batting 1000. I find myself actually publicly thanking an administrator (it only took me 6 years to find one that actually cares for her students and fights for them) so THANK YOU DEAN! (Ok now saying that I expect never to have to do anything like that again on this campus, though I wouldn't mind). So now we earned a privilege that no other students had the right to pay to park! However, not all in the same place. We now had to fight with the staff in the HSC for parking spots (Who also have to pay monthly to park, the only staff members that have to pay to park on this campus, and probably in this county), or we have to park in the hospital garage and fight for spaces with the staff and visitors.

It's bad enough we have to pay for parking but to also have to wait 10 min to get past the gate of the parking lot and then search for another 10 min for a space? It almost might be worth it to take a bus. Then to put up with the rude parking attendants when the gate won't open for you because you aren't sure how to use the access card. They make you sit there for 10 min so they can push a button that opens the gate for you, in-between cursing you and mumbling so you can't understand them (NOW that is what I have learned to expect from good ole SB). Then you get the line up of cars behind you fuming and cursing because they can't get out either. Then the real fun begins, some people crash down the gates, but your problem doesn't end there. These cards are intelligent (probably more that the desk riders that hand them out to you). In order to enter the garage you must have scanned in as leaving and vice versa. So you can't even share the card with a friend. They also tell you that you still need a current parking permit or they will ticket you. HOW when you are parking in the same place as visitors. I haven't seen them issue every hospital visitor a parking permit. After paying $22.50 a month for parking the university is also going to soak you for a @#%@% parking permit! Give me a dam break. You know if I only had one clinical rotation a month I would just park illegally and take my chances. At $15 per parking ticket and the chance to fight it (and I have never lost yet) it is cheaper than parking. (Anyone want to take bets at how long till the phone rings at The Press with Shirl or one of her minions having their skirt in a bind over that last statement?)

So once again what is the biggest universal problem on campus, parking, what do they always do? Close parking lots. Only this headache is going to cause lost of problems when the people paying to park have no place to park. As I also said the South-P lot is not an option for the employees or some of the students. The buses can't get them to, or take them from the HSC, or both because of the hours they run. They better find an option soon because rumor has it that the rest of the employee parking lot above the former "H-Lot" will also be going the way of the dodo. I have been saying this for years "They need to add parking that is convent not eliminate it" will they listen to me, of course not, these are just the ravings of The Lunatick.

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