No bone for first-year males

Already this semester we have seen greater restrictions for first-year guys. First-year males are now required to park off in the corner of campus – all for the same $200 price of covered and convenient parking.

Administrators claim the decision was made because first-year males have been responsible for many recent hit-and-runs and vandalisms. Also, because of construction, they needed to make room for the more important people because of parking loss around fraternity row and the South quad.

Hit-and-runs, ya say? The facts state otherwise. According to the daily police reports from August 2001 to May 2002 there were seven hit-and-runs, of which two were in the law garage – already forbidden to first-year males. So, that leaves five other “FLIDs” (failure to leave identification) from the last school year.

Question: If they left no ID, how do you know it was a first-year male? How do you even know it was a student? Considering the entrance arms are never down, it could have easily been one of the many vandals that prowl though our unsecured parking garages stealing all valuables in sight.

Within the same time period, the garages had 10 reports of vandalism and 15 burglaries. Entrance arms are there, just unused. Security cameras are barely being installed and garage patrols are still minimal.

SMU’s own police department admits burglaries are most likely committed by non-SMU affiliated perpetrators. “In all likelihood, burglaries are from people off campus,” Chief Aaron Graves said. “However, vandalism is more than likely perpetrated by students.”

This may be true, but without proof, there’s no telling. In this country, we are supposed to be “innocent until proven guilty.” What message are students being given? “Well, we think First-year males could be responsible for all this, even though we don’t really know, so let’s just shove them to the side and maybe the problem will go away.” Intelligent people don’t make decisions that way.

At one point SMU had a garage security booth occupied by a guard overseeing all who went in and out. The man has vanished and people are free to roam around, taking anything they want.

Let’s face it, SMU is full of people with money, thus with nice cars and nice things in the cars. Robbers and thieves go where the easy goods are. SMU takes little effort to protect us. In fact, I think I’ve driven past a billboard which read, “Want some quick cash? SMU is the place to go.” I could’ve misread it.

Everyone pays $200 for parking on campus. Females get front-row because for safety. Fine. Everyone else gets the option of covered parking or space available. Why should first-year males pay the same but get no benefits?

Parking on a barely paved lot on some corner far from academic buildings is illogical considering the space in the garages is unused. And paying the same as everyone else is simply not fair.

I urge the administration to either realize first-year males are not the problem or admit that they are just the most dispensable. The problem is security. More garage patrols, more cameras and more common sense students who call the cops when they see something wrong will cut down theft, damage and vandalism.

Program the police department into your cell phone. 911 will get you University Park and you’ll have to wait to be transferred. SMU PD is here to help us, but they can’t be everywhere.

Let’s take a more proactive role to protect our campus and our belongings. Besides, the more you report suspicious activity, the less parking tickets officers can distribute.