While the exact wording may not be included in an official petition drafted to address graduate student parking concerns, "I took it up the tailpipe from Duke Parking Services" has become a rallying cry among students. Several graduate students have designed and begun selling bumper stickers with the phrase to express their frustration with the fall parking situation.
After receiving numerous e-mails this summer saying the graduate student parking situation is inadequate, executive members of the Graduate and Professional Student Council recently devised a petition to "Address the Transportation Needs of Graduate and Professional Students."
The petition cites a broad range of concerns--presenting historical issues regarding transportation at the University and addressing the specific needs of graduate students due to their irregular schedules--and proposes both short- and long-term transportation plans.
Ideally, the petition's creators want the University to formulate a Master Plan for the 2003-2004 school year, ready for presentation to the student body by this December.
"The petition serves two purposes--those who have access to e-mail wanted to get something done before school starts and we wanted it to detail out the long-term goals," said GPSC President Rob Saunders, a third-year graduate student in physics.
GPSC has approached the University several times over the past three years, but its members say Duke has not responded noticeably.
"For one reason or another, [the University] can't seem to get a plan together ahead of time," said Carol Chancey, a fifth-year biomedical engineering student. "Between agreeing with us and implementation, there seems to be a big hole."
Some felt the need to take the initiative a bit further. "We felt that signing the parking petition just wasn't a public enough protest," Ken Eaton, a neuroengineering student who has been selling the "tailpipe" bumper stickers, wrote in an e-mail. "We felt this would be a statement that parking officials might take more notice of."
Biomedical students, law students and students in the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences have voiced the most frustration over the summer, Saunders said. He has been receiving almost daily e-mails on the subject.
Saunders said GPSC's primary concern for the fall is the availability and security of parking in the perimeter lots on Duke University Road.
But Director of Parking and Transportation Cathy Reeve said additional precautions have been taken for the perimeter lots. They will be patrolled from 7 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. by a security vehicle, and bus service will run every 12 minutes with routes to the Chapel and Science Drive.
Graduate students who wished to keep their spaces in the same lots as last year had until Aug. 15 to register online. After that date, all remaining students and faculty were placed on a waitlist for the remaining spaces in the "nearer" lots, Reeve said.
Despite the loss of the Divinity School and Circuit Drive lots, Reeve was still able to satisfy 60 percent of the need in the 45 graduate and professional departments. The remaining 40 percent will be forced to park in remote lots if they are not taken off the waitlist.
"Everyone will get a decal, but it is a question of if it is where they want to be," said Joe Pietrantoni, Associate Vice President for Auxiliary Services.
To express concern, graduate and professional students and other community members can log onto the website (www.duke.edu/gpsc/ParkingPetition/) and "sign" the petition through at least the first two weeks of the school year. The finalized petition will be presented to President Nan Keohane and eight other University officials.
"I think [the petition] enhances our mutual desire to develop more effective communication in transportation and parking issues," said University Architect John Pearce, who will meet with Medical Center & Health Systems Architect, Greg Warwick, to discuss the future of the proposal from a University-wide design standpoint.
"It could evolve into an overall program statement which would spell out the issues on a broad basis--not just for the grad student, but for faculty, undergraduate students and visitors," he continued.
Saunders said the petition has already generated several hundred responses and added that once new students arrive at school for the fall and get to view the parking situation first hand, he expects that number will climb even higher.
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