New fees: Consider yourself parked

By Jeff Trull

The lack of parking spaces still forces students to park on the grass. Will parking fees make this a thing of the past?

This year UMD will see changes to its parking system. Parking for resident and commuter students is now clearly defined via a new parking map. Parking stickers have been ditched for plastic permits that hang on rear-view mirrors. But the major difference: cost. As many already know, parking on the UMass Dartmouth campus is no longer free. Resident students must surrender $150 for a full year pass while commuter students pay $100. As a result, additional revenue of approximately half of a million dollars will be available for parking improvements. Let the changes begin! Right?

While there have been gripes over the new parking expense, the fee implementation is probably long overdue. Every other school in the UMass system as well as the Massachusetts state college system has already enacted parking fees. Most of these schools charge about the same amount for parking permit - if not more - than UMD currently does. For example, to park at Bridgewater State College for a full academic year will set you back $125. Parking at UMass Amherst for a year starts at $165. Framingham State is no bargain at $500. Finally, UMass Boston tops the list at a whopping $684 for the full year. Many private universities also charge for parking. Suddenly our measly $150 fee here isn’t sounding so expensive anymore.

Even though the single parking fee itself may not be much, it is another cost to students. This additional expense tops off a long list of fees appearing on our bills each semester. While “tuition” is a bargain at $708.50, the curriculum support fee of $3,270.00 surely ups the bottom line cost. Then come more fees: Health Fee, Athletics Fee, Graduation Fee, Campus Center Fee, Alumni Fee, and so on. Yikes! I appreciate the itemization of my bill, but a giant list of fees doesn’t make me feel better about giving up extra money.

As for the parking fee: I have come to terms with it. UMD has already banked my $150. Now I need to see some improvements. A lot of ideas have been presented for using the money. Cameras at each entry and exit to campus have been proposed. Transportation improvements, such as upgrading the Dart Van fleet, have also been suggested. A new 14-passenger Dart Van has already been purchased. Additional lighting and infrastructure improvements have been mentioned, too. There’s no question that there’s a lot of money and a lot of questions about where it will go.

There is certainly no shortage of places where improvements can be made. My first major issue is with parking availability. After commuting to school every day last year, I recognize the headaches students face. While I understand that not everyone can park in the lot closest to their academic building, everyone should be able to park reasonably close. A five-minute walk to my class from my car is fine, but outside of that is pushing it. It’s frustrating to have to walk across the entire campus after spending ten minutes just searching for a spot. Now that students are paying, it’s only fair to provide them with a convenient place to park. The system as it stands it not adequate, especially with the growing student population each year. Barring radical changes to the parking policies, creating additional parking areas on campus is inevitable. Various options exist, such as garages or new lots. While these expensive changes cannot be made overnight, serious consideration should be going into the where, when, and how of new parking on the UMD campus.

My second issue with parking on campus is vandalism and theft. I have been a victim of vandalism to my car, as have many other students here. Others have had stereos, electronics, and even wheels stolen while parked on and around Ring Road. While culprits are occasionally caught, the problem seems to be constant. Although this can never be stopped entirely, additional security should cut down the occurrences. Increased patrols by campus police through the parking lots is certainly a place to start. As for the cameras that have already been suggested by the Public Safety, why not put one in each residential parking lot and at the entrance of the school? This measure should deter at least some criminal activity.

And then there’s our beloved Dart Van. While the Dart Van service is great for those who use it and feel safer because of it, the truth remains that most students don’t utilize it regularly. Commuter students don’t even use the vans at all! But it seems as though Dart Vans are constantly being improved, upgraded, or added. I would much rather see my money spent on the aforementioned improvements.

The argument for or against parking fees is over. This new expense is here to stay. Both the need and finances necessary for major improvements are in place. Now let’s see some changes happen!

Police brutality in Providence repeats the past

By Lance Gagnon

It sometimes seems like the police do more harm than good when it comes to keeping our society peaceful. Numerous historical events, from the Haymarket Affair of 1886 to the Battle in Seattle of 1999, have shown that the police sometimes incite violence rather than prevent it. Their actions around protesters, especially those with radical beliefs, have shown that they are not politically neutral, and that they are willing to resort to violence to uphold the status quo. The recent case of police brutality in Providence, Rhode Island is only further proof of this.

On August 4, a protest was held by the radical worker’s union Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) against the Providence restaurant chain Jackie’s Galaxie for doing business with the New York-based restaurant supply company Dragonland. Dragonland is currently facing charges of illegal activities including paying workers less than minimum wage, firing workers suspected of union organizing, and not compensating them for overtime. A Dragonland employee at the protest stated that employees are made to work over 100 hours a week for less than $5 per hour. Though they were informed about the situation and claimed to have changed suppliers, Jackie’s Galaxie has yet to produce invoices proving they no longer do business with Dragonland.

As a result, the IWW marched down the street that the restaurant is on, keeping on the right side of the road. The police began trailing them and demanded that the protesters move to the sidewalk. Though they didn’t move initially, the protesters eventually began to move to the sidewalk. However, before they could do so two police cars sped in front of the group; two cops got out and ran into the crowd.

Alex Svoboda, who was at the front of the march, was tackled to the ground. The officer who did this grabbed her leg and bent it before she hit the ground, and the resulting impact caused a broken bone and a burst blood vessel. Svoboda was sent to Rhode Island Hospital after the incident, but is still under police arrest. The officers claim that she pushed an officer and swung a set of drumsticks at them, and that the other protesters caused her injuries.

In a way, the actions of the police are not surprising. Throughout American history, protesters have not been treated fairly by the government. In the past, the police and the National Guard have used violence to stop people from organizing strikes against unfair labor conditions, ending the inhumane institution of slavery, protesting institutionalized racism, and protesting wars that they didn’t believe in. Even mildly radical organizing, such as the charity Food Not Bombs, which attempts to give free food to the homeless and hungry, has sometimes been met with violence from those who we are told are supposed to make our communities safer.

But it is nonetheless disturbing to see that law enforcement in our country still hasn’t learned to let democracy take its course. Protesting may have become very common since the 1960s, but the police still act as if an attempt to change the status quo is a threat that needs to be brutally suppressed. Of course, riots do break out now and then, but many of them, including the ones during the aforementioned Haymarket and Seattle situations, were caused by the police themselves (who, like the ones in Providence, tried to blame it on the protesters). If the police want to keep protests peaceful, there’s a really simple method they can use: keep away from them and let the protesters — the real defenders of the peace — handle it themselves.

INKLINGS

Turning to face the strange ch-changes — together

By Allison Reitz

Whether this is your first year or your fifth year at UMass Dartmouth, welcome to the 2007 fall semester! For my fellow seniors and me, this is the year we’ve been waiting for. With threats of full-fledged adulthood looming just around the corner, there’s no time to waste as we scramble to make the most of our final year in college. And for everyone else — well, enjoy it while you can. But regardless of what year you’re entering and what decade you hope to graduate in, the start of a new semester always means one thing: ch-ch-ch-changes.

For returning students, you may only be facing something as minor as a schedule change. Others may be looking forward to new courses, new housing assignments, new roommates and (of course) new adventures and experiences. All the while, the university’s freshmen and transfer students will be making the change from awkward, lost and undeniably “green” into confident, acclimated and experienced students.

Yet, no matter how long one has been in school, we can all find ourselves thrown back into that freshman state of bewilderment every now and then. Don’t lie. We’ve all been there — some of us longer than others. (It’s been about 22 years of bewilderment for me.) Depending on how acutely an individual experiences the change of a new school year, and how complete the changes are, a new semester can feel like the first time.

Take, for instance, The Torch.

As classes start up and students get back into academic gear, The Torch is in its annual state of overhaul and renewal. Each May, senior editors graduate and move on with their lives (sometimes to the dismay of those left behind). Each September, a new editorial board forms as eager students step up to fill the void. And though each editor who has left takes with them specially and specifically honed talents, each editor who follows in their wake brings with them fresh potential and bright hope.

But, boy, is it hectic. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. And even though newspapers don’t construct aqueducts or anything of the sort, it’s still very difficult work.

So why am I telling you this? Why am I revealing the paper’s soft underbelly as a potential target? Well, selfishly, I’m hoping you’ll take it easy on us for these first few weeks. But on a more altruistic note, I hope that we can use this as a point of fraternity. “Hey, you don’t know what the hell is going on quite yet? Neither do we. Want to hold hands?”

Okay, maybe we won’t literally hold hands, but think figuratively. (We are writers, after all. We’re totally into all that metaphorical stuff.) We’ll be here to inform, help and serve you just as long as you’ll be there to keep us in line and tuned in to student concerns on campus and in the surrounding community.

Don’t worry. I won’t ramble on about how The Torch is a teensy caterpillar that needs your help to pupate into a majestic media butterfly. (Oops, just did!) But, in all honesty, it’s not just the students on staff who make The Torch a student-run newspaper.

It’s the students who support and criticize us that make us what we really are: a paper for and by the students. We count on you — your ideas, your tips, your contributions and, yes, even your complaints — to point us in the right direction from week to week and year to year.

Whether you join the team as a writer, illustrator or photographer (we’ll take anyone who will put up with our all-nighters and obsession with typeface-related jokes) or simply pick up an issue each Thursday on your way to class, the student body of UMass Dartmouth defines the voice of this paper from year to year, just as much as our ever-changing editorial board does.

And so I beg of you: don’t be shy, cozy up, and get to know us.

Our weekly writers meetings (Monday, 6 to 7 p.m., in Room 007 of the Campus Center) are open to everyone — whether you have some journalistic experience or just want to see us in action.

Not free Mondays? Stop by our office on the second floor of the Campus Center, in room 206, near our partners in media crime, Campus Design and Scrimshaw Yearbook. Late nights and long afternoons early in the week are our forte, so look us up.

And though our physical door might not always be open in a literal sense, this is the digital age, and our digital door is always open. Send story ideas or letters to the editor at torch@umassd.edu.

We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you. And maybe, just maybe, if you ask nicely, we’ll let you in on our little joke about Helvetica.

SOUL SIGHTINGS

Welcome from new Protestant chaplain

I am excited to have been appointed Protestant Chaplain for UMass Dartmouth this past June.  Let me introduce myself!  I have been around UMass Dartmouth for 24 years now as pastor of Dartmouth Bible Church, right across from campus (on Morton Avenue).  I have enjoyed knowing many students, faculty and staff over the years, and I look forward to being around more and in a little more official way this year! 

I grew up in Washington D.C., became a Christian at Virginia Tech in 1972, and graduated from there with a degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research in 1975. 

After working as an engineer for two years, I began vocational ministry on staff at a church in Roanoke, Virginia for three years.  My wife Renée and I then went to Texas for graduate school, and I graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary in 1983 having studied historical theology. We then came to Dartmouth. Renée herself graduated from UMD (she was one of the last “SMU” graduates) in 1991, and our daughter Jocelyn graduated from UMass Dartmouth in 2006.  Our other daughter Susanna graduated from Messiah College this year. I am finishing my doctoral work this year, also through Dallas Theological Seminary.  

I envision my role to be a friend, facilitator and support person to any and all Christians on campus, as well as to anyone else who might wish my friendship!  While we are a diverse community with many of the challenges of our greater society, I think there is much the Lord is doing in our midst, and I have seen many good things come out of our university community over the years. As I explore how to be of service and ministry to the university community, please feel welcomed to get in touch with me and share with me your needs, ideas, and ways I can minister among the “Corsair” family.  I will be around the campus on Mondays and Tuesdays, with an open door in the Religious Resource Center office, and am always willing to meet on campus at other times, too!  My on-campus e-mail is ndamgaard@umassd.edu and my cell phone is 508-961-7291.  I am looking forward to a great year with you!

Rev. Neil Damgaard
Protestant Chaplain