With the one million dollar gift from the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, science majors three years from now will graduate with better experience and more knowledge than science majors graduating this year. But if other changes are not made, they will still be without parking.
Parking is among the heaviest issues concerning students, and the administration is not doing anything about it.
The college is rapidly growing, accepting more students each year and planning to erect more buildings to accommodate the students. This part makes sense. Cabrini needs to grow to be among the best institutes of higher education. But with more people, come more cars. And with more cars, comes a more serious demand for available parking. Before more growth is planned and before trees are cut down for new buildings, the administration must consider the serious lack of parking available to students, both residents and commuters.
Even if the administration makes plans to expand parking, it is faced with another difficult question – where? Upon visiting Cabrini, prospective students stare in amazement at the beauty of the nature surrounding campus. Twenty minutes from downtown Philadelphia, Cabrini offers a quality education with a natural atmosphere. So, do we trade tranquility for growth and giant slabs of concrete filled with automobiles? Or do we deal with complaints from students as they continue to add to the 125 parking violation tickets issued per week by public safety because they cannot find legal open spaces?
Of course, this is looking at the long-term effects of an expanding campus. It is not realistic to think that the college can create enough parking to fill the void right now. What the college can do, however, is firmly stick to policy, as it should. To quote public safety’s policies and procedures booklet, “First-year resident students are NOT permitted to have their vehicles on campus. If there is a medical necessity for a vehicle, permission must be obtained through the vice president for student development.”
Contrary to the policy, director of public safety, Charlie Schaffner, said, “We haven’t turned too many people down,” in the front-page story. With the cars of freshmen cramming the lots this year, we wonder what has the freshman class so ill. It could be time for quarantine, but the truth is that the policy is handled too frivolously.
Until more parking is made available, the policy should be enforced and only first-year students in need of exception should be granted exception. Such is not the case now.
