Embarrassed by Colleague's Behavior

[RatGuy]

This morning on my walk from the parking lot to my office, I witnessed one of my colleagues berating a student for parking in the faculty lot. I didn't hear anything that he said to the student, but he walked with me in the direction of my office. He complained that he told that this (currently full) lot was for faculty, that the student would get a ticket, and that the student didn't seem to care. At least, he didn't move his car. So then I got to listen to a rant about "students who don't think the rules apply to them" etc etc. I mean, I get resenting students who think that eating a $150 ticket is no big deal, but I told him I just couldn't see myself calling anyone out for it. He said he thought it was a teaching moment. The whole situation was awkward and embarrassing, and it makes me wonder what he's like in the class.

[backatit]

I don't think we have enough to do. I want to become my university's parking enforcement as well. I get that we have limited parking, but the ticket will be (or maybe won't be) correction enough. We don't have "faculty" and "student" parking - we have zones. Faculty DO have a different zone, but it can be shared for some special occasions (like during a conference, my department will give some students who are presenting temporary "faculty" passes so they can park there (contractors working on the building also get these "zone" passes). Honestly, I wouldn't presume that the student didn't have one of these.

[Ruralguy]

I wouldn't call this embarrassing behavior. I may or may not agree with this faculty member's ferocity, but parking can be a problem on many campuses. Its even more of an issue when a huge % of students are residential and within walking distance (and, say, its not a particularly rainy or hot day so weather excuses are off the table).

[Cheerful]

I avoid such confrontations for safety reasons if nothing else.

On my campus, the parking police would have been there within minutes, slapping the ticket on the windshield.  Zero mercy for faculty, staff, or students -- even during off weeks when the campus is almost empty.

[aside]

I avoid such confrontations for safety reasons if nothing else.

On my campus, the parking police would have been there within minutes, slapping the ticket on the windshield.  Zero mercy for faculty, staff, or students -- even during off weeks when the campus is almost empty.

Ditto, in my experience.  I have been surprised at how brazenly students will park in the faculty lot, even when I am getting out of my car and I know they see me and they know I see them.  But it's not my job to confront them, and our cops will get them.

[apl68]

I had the great good fortune to live off-campus within walking distance of the large university where I used to work.  I observed that among those not so fortunate parking could sometimes become a passionate issue.  Neighborhood residents around the fringes of the university got especially upset at commuters using their streets and apartment parking lots for free parking.  Somebody in my building got so angry over the situation that she starting putting vigilante tow-away notices on the windshields of any cars she judged had no right to park in our lot.  She had to cease and desist when she mistakenly did this to some fellow residents' vehicles, and they complained to the landlord.  I was embarrassed both for and by her.  I suppose it all goes to show that it doesn't pay to let oneself get too nuts about the issue.

[kaysixteen]

It also doesn't pay to not be able to park one's car in one's own parking lot.  This was the landlord's fault.  He should have had the interlopers towed.

[apl68]

It also doesn't pay to not be able to park one's car in one's own parking lot.  This was the landlord's fault.  He should have had the interlopers towed.

Actually I don't think there WERE any interlopers in this instance, or at least not on any regular basis.  Our building had six apartment units, and a tiny lot with barely room for six vehicles to park.  But there were several two-car households in the building, and if somebody parked a little crooked in the lot--which happened often, since there was no striping--only five cars could park there.  In other words, there was an absolute shortage of parking for all the tenants.  But this person simply refused to believe that.  She was convinced that evil commuters or somebody were parking in our lot and depriving her of her rightful parking space. 

The thing is, she returned from work each evening after the commuters had cleared out.  If she was unlucky in finding a space in our designated lot, she could virtually always park on the street within a block of the building.  But in her mind that minor inconvenience was a major injustice that became a crazy-making bee in her bonnet.  That seems to happen a lot with parking issues.  It sounds like that's what happened with the colleague in the original post.

[mamselle]

We have that problem more in the winter, when it snows, and people carve out open-air parking igloos, and mark them with beach furniture (oh, the irony!) ....and then go after anyone trying to use the unused space during the day with a rake or a broomstick.

Just one big friendly community....

M.

[dr_codex]

We have all of the problems described above, and more. We also have at least two committees charged with solving (or, at least, easing) our parking issues. Neither has done much of note.

Parking is one of the electrified rails in academia. I wouldn't touch it.

[fourhats]

I'm siding with the faculty member on this one. We pay hundreds of dollars a year for permits to our assigned lots, and come to work only to discover that students--who aren't paying for those lots--have taken all the spots we pay for. We can call parking, but by the time they arrive and put a ticket on the windshield, the students have disappeared and we're late for class or work, because we can't find another place to park. How is telling the student this embarrassing?

[AvidReader]

My spouse recently took some classes at a university that hired him as a tutor in his second semester. As it turned out, tutoring for the university meant that he qualified as staff, so he could have gotten a faculty/staff parking permit had he so desired. (He didn't, but some similarly eligible classmates did). Is it possible that the student in the original post works for the university in some small capacity (writing lab tutor, for instance) that has a similar policy? Some students wear many hats.

AR.

[RatGuy]

My spouse recently took some classes at a university that hired him as a tutor in his second semester. As it turned out, tutoring for the university meant that he qualified as staff, so he could have gotten a faculty/staff parking permit had he so desired. (He didn't, but some similarly eligible classmates did). Is it possible that the student in the original post works for the university in some small capacity (writing lab tutor, for instance) that has a similar policy? Some students wear many hats.

AR.

While I personally would try to avoid jumping to conclusions about students, my angry colleague has another story. He said that when he told the student that they'd ticket for being in the faculty lot, the student said, "Who cares? It's only $150." Maybe the student was being flippant or sarcastic, but that was yet another thing that my colleague was ranting about.  Ugh, I hope I don't run into him this morning. He's such a grump.

[mamselle]

Hmm.

Some student needs to be put on their own income curbs.

That's two weeks' groceries in my world.

M.

[apl68]

More like four weeks' in mine.  I'd forgotten how mind-boggingly affluent and casual about money some students can be at some schools.