Opinion by REYHAN ENVER
First semester is almost over, but have students received everything they paid for and expected? In certain cases, such as mine, the answer is no.
For those of us who drive to school and attend full-time classes, buying a parking pass is necessary. Paying roughly $400 for that parking pass should mean you get what you pay for – an entire lot to park in on your campus and near your classes.
I purchased a pass online in the summer, and then, on the first day in September, I went to pick it up. I was upset to discover that I had accidentally purchased a pink pass for the new Cambridge campus and two really distant lots at the Doon campus. Immediately I tried to exchange the pink pass for an orange one, which I had originally intended to purchase. On top of having a leg injury from an accident, paying the same sum of money to only have a choice of two lots at Doon instead of multiple lots didn’t seem fair.
The pink parking pass allows you to park in one orange lot and one blue lot at Doon, which are farther and limit the spots available.
Laziness isn’t the only issue involved (but is included) since the two lots are farther than the ones I wanted to park in. The number of spaces available and the distance can be a problem. If you’re running late, you want the shortest distance to walk to your classroom. If you’re carrying a huge project, the same applies. As well, if it’s raining and/or cold out (especially in the winter) you probably want to get in the school as quick as possible.
I was told I could come back to the security office in one month and receive my correct parking pass; they simply said they would trade it for me since the passes were the same price. I thought this was reasonable.
I went back to the office one month later as requested and I was then told that they had changed their minds; they weren’t switching passes because the lots were “fine the way they were,” as in not full or too crowded.
After paying for the pass and anxiously waiting for that month, I was shut down and turned away.
If the lots were “fine,” why couldn’t the switch happen?
If I had been told that they were still deciding if they were going to do pass switches or not, rather than telling me I could definitely switch my pass no problem in one month, at least I would’ve expected that I may not get the pass I wanted.
I was told that if I can get a doctor’s note that I could have my pass. A doctor’s note to get the parking pass I was already promised seems unnecessary. I don’t understand why the money I paid for my parking pass (the right one, on my campus) doesn’t entitle me to a switch. If the price wasn’t as expensive as it is, maybe I wouldn’t mind so much, but over a simple mistake of purchasing the other campus’s pass, I am stuck in a distant lot all year.
I may be getting what I paid for in my classes, but I sure am not in terms of parking.
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