Center starts process of creating distinct classes of campus citizens

Dear Editor:

Your article on the opening of the Ted and Rand Schaal Aquatics Center (Dateline, Jan. 30; see http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/dateline/ archives.lasso) unsettled my usual happy mood.

A multimillion dollar facility is being reserved for the use of a few intercollegiate and sports club teams that represent a tiny fraction of the student body and other off-campus competitive groups while leaving the majority of students, the faculty and staff the use of the antiquated Hickey pool for recreational use.

It appears that the decision to exclude most of the university community from use of what is no doubt a wonderful facility begins the process of creating several distinct classes of citizens on the campus.

We have our privileged Division I "student athletes" at the top of the pyramid, followed by other students, with faculty and staff at the bottom. Is this what Division I is all about?

-- Michael Singer, chair, Land, Air and Water Resources

Parking letter incomplete

Dear Editor:

I am responding to a letter written by Vice Chancellor Stan Nosek, "Collaboration sought to help balance parking costs, needs." (Dateline, Jan. 9; see http://www.news.ucdavis. edu/dateline/archives.lasso). Vice Chancellor Nosek's letter was written in response to the Parking News bulletin, distributed by the Academic Senate's Committee on Parking.

The letter and the administration, ignores several critical points when considering the issue of using fees collected for parking by Transportation and Parking Services, as partial support to renovation of Dairy Road and other campus building projects. For instance:

1) Dairy Road is not an entry/exit to the West Entry Parking structure, nor even an artery to it. It is used, essentially, 100 percent for other purposes. So the "share" of parking fees for its improvement should be zero;

2) Parking fees continuously increase (a pay cut to the employees) and availability is continuously decreased; and

3) Our fees over the years have paid for parking lots which have later been allocated for other campus building projects. This results in taxation of the employees for projects over which they have no voice (another pay cut.) Our fees are further increased to cover the cost to build new lots to replace the ones (we had already paid for) which were consumed by the building projects.

Vice Chancellor Nosek is arbitrary to suggest that if parking fees are not used, in part, to improve Dairy Road, then this will reduce funds for academic programs. That same argument could be used to claim that any campus fund should be taxed for Dairy Road. But the difference with the parking fees fund is that the employees pay for that. The employees should not be paying for campus building projects that have nothing to do with their parking.

-- Charles Hunt, professor, electrical and computer engineering