I wrote the following article for the Weber State SignPost (for those of you who don't know, that's the campus newspaper). It damn well better be printed in Friday's paper SOMEWHERE ... I don't care where (although front page is preferable)!
I am in my vehicle. There are cars on all sides of me. I am unable to move. I'm not on I-15, I'm not on Highway 89, I'm not even on Harrison Boulevard. I am in the A2 Parking Lot at Weber State University! As I watch the snow fall onto my windshield I ponder my options; as a faculty member of the Communication Department, I'm certain there must be a simple resolution. I return to the building and make a sensible call to Parking Enforcement to explain my predicament. They are seemingly unmoved by my story.
After collaborating with other faculty members I make a bit more forceful call to Administration. I am greeted by a sweet sounding voice and an apology. I wait. There is only silence. I explain that the only way my vehicle could possibly leave the campus is if it were air lifted by helicopter. I hear a forced giggle followed by more silence. After I explain that I've called to request a resolution, I'm given a multiple choice list of others who might be able to assist me. Being wise to the ways of the world and having played the phone-transfer game many times, I advise the office manager I'm speaking to that since she is in a position that allows her direct contact with the administrator of Parking Enforcement and Snow Removal this is now her problem and I do not wish to be transferred. She promises to send someone to assist me.
I anxiously await by the door for my rescuer only to see Parking Enforcement giving out parking tickets to every car in the lot NOT parked between the painted lines beneath the snow and ice that no one can see. This means that every car is receiving a citation.
Being a twelve-year veteran of communication instruction I decide to approach the officers to have a reasonable chat; or so I thought. I thank them for coming and ask how they might assist me. They don't respond and continue with their ticket writing. I speak a bit louder and ask, "How do you know who to ticket?" They explain, without making eye contact, that each person can dispute their ticket if they wish and ask to see MY parking permit. I proudly display it and return to the building to make yet another phone call for assistance. This time I call the direct extension of the head honcho in charge; but, again am met with an apology that he is in meetings until 4 p.m.
Frustrated, I make a phone call to an old friend, another Weber State alumni, hoping that Sky2 might air lift me home; but am dismayed when I only receive voice mail. Two hours after I was supposed to have been at another friend's funeral I sit here typing, waiting for a phone call that may or may not come some time after 4 o'clock, or for my car to be freed ... whichever comes first. I'm amazed how easily people want to blame others, write tickets, complain, but there really aren't that many people out there who just want to fix the problem and make people happy ... or happier than their previous state.
Maybe if everyone in the A2 Lot who receives a ticket today (Wednesday) would ban together, not pay their tickets, and combine their money to go towards the purchase of a snow plow for this specific lot I could get home sometime before summer.
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