Police are out to help students
To the Editor:
On the 28th of August Mr. John Gels had published here a letter to the editor which indicated that the non-campus police are biased against college students. I feel that there are two sides to this. Firstly, it must be pointed out that there are a lot of disruptive college students here at Washington University. That is a basic part of human nature. Any large body of people is going to have its antisocial element, and college students are especially problematic. As Mr. Gels wrote, all you have to do is look at the Police Beat. Who do you think is committing the crime, the vandalism, disturbing the peace, and petty theft? Many of the criminals are students. A drunk student will do a lot that a sober one will not, and increased police patrols on Friday and Saturday nights make a lot of sense.
As for Mr. Gels’ problems with the Clayton Police, I might suggest that he is unfairly extrapolating from his personal bad experience. Lots of people have had bad experiences with the police; no organization, police or otherwise, can be expected to be perfect, and some citizens will be more unlucky than others. As a student patrol and escort worker for the Campus Police I will freely admit that I am a supporter of the police in general.
However, I will not support discriminatory practices by them in any way. Mr. Gels is letting his cynicism and feelings of persecution give rise to unfounded accusations of bias because his limited experience has not been good. I suggest that the next time he feels “unprotected” he go to the Loop and wave at the cops. He might be surprised at how many of them wave back.
M. Alan Thomas II
English
Class of 2004
New parking garage is deathtrap
To the Editor:
The new parking garage behind Fraternity Row is an accident waiting to happen at best and a deathtrap at worst. Considering the lengthy amount of time that was necessary to complete this structure, I am shocked to see how poorly designed it is. There are significant design flaws. The first is the unsafe amount of actual driving space. There is hardly enough room for two cars to pass each other without swiping a parked car. Secondly, the turns are extremely dangerous. There are numerous blind spots that may be overlooked and a collision is imminent. I find it hard to believe that “Compact Cars Only” signs will actually keep SUV’s from parking in these corner spots. A simple addition of mirrors would easily alleviate this problem. I’d also suggest a yellow line be painted to separate oncoming traffic. Furthermore, there is no pedestrian walkway on levels 1-3. So in addition to cars coming out of a blind spot, you must also watch out for people walking to and from their cars. All of this pales in comparison to the design of the garage entrance. It is IMPOSSIBLE for a car to enter and another car to exit at the same time. To make matters worse, it is also impossible to see into the garage from Snow Way. It is very likely that a car will turn into the garage without seeing a car that is exiting. This garage is dangerous to drive in, life-threatening to walk through and miserable to live near. Maybe we should put all of the University administrators’ parking spaces on the 4th level of this garage so that they can experience each of the 5 hairpin turns. Or maybe our $325 parking fee should also cover the insurance deductible when we are hit head-on by another driver. Either way, I find it appalling that Washington University has spent $5.28 million (as reported in Student Life, 2/18/2001), or $12,000 per space, on this poor excuse for a parking garage.
Adam Schulman
Engineering
Class of 2002
Support for freshman bonding
To the editor:
I am responding to Marc Dobrow’s opinion essay on freshman transition. The essay reminded me of my own pre-freshman days 3 years ago. I joined a “Step Ahead Program” designed for international freshmen and took two classes over the summer as an incoming freshman.
The program helped me to learn the ropes and meet with friends that last. I believe that similar programs should be re-introduced to the Class of 2006.
Class of 2005 is quite frightening. In Cantonese, 2 means easy or change. In Chinese, 5 means fight. At Washington University, we need to call 5-5555 if there is a fire or a fight. And my intuition tells me that there are quite a few fighters in the class of 2005. Also, the year 2005 would be a year we all have to watch – a year of tough peace-keeping.
Also, what does Marc and Dobrow mean? Remember names in vain.
Ho Simon Wang
Arts & Sciences
Class of 2002