Ripon College Days

We're spoiled.

We talk about a walk back from Storzer as if it were one of our grandparent's mythic walks to school in the olden days: ten miles barefoot through the blinding snow, uphill both ways.

So to spare ourselves from this mammoth undertaking, we've come to think of Thorne Street as our favorite parking lot. On Thorne, we can stash our car almost obscenely close to our room and keep it there for days at a time, so it's convenient the next time we want it.

But the accident on Thorne Street earlier this month ought to remind us that the street serves not only students, but also members of the community. And the fact is our parked cars are clogging the street and making travel much more hazardous than it needs to be.

We can see the potential danger of congestion every time we turn onto Thorne Street as we come out of the Quads Circle. Or as we face down an oncoming SUV during a trip to class in Storzer. Just about everyone can recount an occasion on Thorne when they were only a few feet from a soaring insurance premium.

We must realize that Thorne is a street first and foremost. It has to get the people of the Ripon community safely to their destinations.

Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, we're also members of that Ripon community. Our status as citizens mandates that we occasionally think about the common good before our own self interest. That means where we park shouldn't be all about convenience.

With the safety of the Ripon community in mind, we ask the Student Senate to consider approaching the City of Ripon, asking them to ban overnight parking on Thorne Street throughout the year.

It's easy to think such a policy encroaches our inalienable right to park on city streets, and at first we had our reservations as well, but when you really think about it, it's not really a great loss.

Most of the year we can't park overnight on any street. If we can make it to Storzer in the depths of January, we can do the same on a beautiful fall evening.

And compared to the countless other schools, Ripon has excellent student parking. Students in places like Madison routinely shell out triple the meager cost of our parking passes just for a spot in shady lots many blocks away from campus. At some schools first year students aren't even allowed to bring cars on campus.

This isn't to say that we shouldn't consider changes in regard to parking. Perhaps we need to consider color-coding parking lots, or banning first year students from bringing cars. Maybe we do need to build a new lot.

But at Ripon we enjoy many parking privileges. And we believe it's time to give one of them back, in the name of safety.

Article Tools