Dear editor,
In regard to the article "Fines for parking increase" and the related editorial in the July 19 Collegian, I have only one bit of advice: get a clue.
In case you didn't notice, the fees for a parking permit also were substantially increased this year.
They are slated to continue to go up substantially for the next several years. Bonds to pay for the parking garage construction must be paid off by parking fines and fees.
The parking fines and fees of the past were used to pay for the lots of bureaucracy that we already have; there was no money to build the much-desired parking garage.
So where does the university get that money? Increased user fees, also known as tax increases. By the time this thing is built, parking fines and fees will be sky-high, gas will be $5 a gallon, and hopefully lots more of us will be biking or walking to campus because of those realities.
The student leaders who pushed this thing through will be long gone. Perhaps you can ask your current student government leaders exactly why they thought that this garage was a necessity.
And you might thank Faculty Senate for its disapproval of this notion; most faculty members have been around here long enough to recognize a white elephant when it marches in the door.
David A. Rintoul | ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
OF BIOLOGY
is a member of the 
