Defending DOTS

I would like to respond to Monday’s staff editorial, “Foolish Fees,” and Wednesday’s follow-up guest column, “A truly troubling fee,” concerning the Department of Transportation Services’ fee increase for students with commuter parking permits who live in nearby apartment complexes. It appears to me that some background information would be helpful in this discussion.

DOTS is a self-supported organization. Its operating budget is primarily derived from student fees, parking permits, parking tickets, special events and parking meters. If you want the specific breakdown of revenue and expenditures, you can find it in the DOTS annual report on their website.

The university’s Climate Action Plan, passed in 2009, seriously damages DOTS’ budget future. The plan calls for DOTS to reduce the number of parking permits by 3,450 by 2015 and by an additional 1,200 every five years until 2050. This is a lot of money: The 2015 target represents more than $1.5 million in lost fees.

To its credit, DOTS is attempting to meet the targets in the Climate Action Plan. It makes sense that students who live extremely close to the campus and are serviced by a regular Shuttle-UM route would be the first candidates to give up their permits. DOTS could have prohibited these students from purchasing a permit, but they worked with members of the Student Government Association and Graduate Student Government to develop another solution. Wednesday’s guest columnist should appreciate that DOTS has taken a business approach and relied on price signaling; if the right to drive to the campus is worth an extra $200 to nearby commuters, then they are welcome to pay for that right. This option will reduce the number of parking permits with the added bonus of raising revenue.

This fee is undoubtedly the first of many steps DOTS will need to undertake to reduce parking permits. The campus needs to have an honest conversation about the consequences of the Climate Action Plan on DOTS’ budget because it is only going to get worse. As more and more student housing is added in College Park, students will undoubtedly want DOTS to expand its shuttle service. Gas prices are likely to continue to go up, while parking permit numbers will go down. If students want DOTS to continue its bus services or even expand them, we need to be creative. Ideas such as parking proximity pricing, distance-based permit fees, increased advertising and even Metrobus-like ridership fees have to be explored. If it is legal, perhaps the university needs to begin directly allocating funds for DOTS from its general budget.   

I certainly do not know the solution, and I suspect DOTS Director David Allen does not either. I do know that those students who value a strong Shuttle-UM system should contact Allen or university President Wallace Loh and offer any ideas to improve DOTS. We should also commit to supporting DOTS’ efforts to provide environmentally and economically sustainable transportation.

MICHAEL  SCHOLTEN

GRADUATE STUDENT

PHYSICS

Supporting marriage equality

This is a letter to the members of the state House of Delegates who remain undecided on whether to support HB175, the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act. I urge you to vote yes on this bill, and I ask for your full support of civil marriage equality.

I was born in Maryland, I live in Maryland, I attend the University of Maryland, and I identify as a black lesbian. One day I plan to raise a family in Maryland — but the Maryland I envision is a fair and equal Maryland. As state lawmakers, you have found yourselves in a unique position as the national spotlight falls on Annapolis. There is a tremendous opportunity before you to allow this state the chance to be seen as an equal place for all persons, regardless of whom they may love.

It is my view that a state that succumbs to discrimination will suffer more for its trials. Separate rights are not equal rights, but as a unit I believe we will be able to take on anything, strengthen our bonds as a state and even make the impossible possible.

No one is made the same, but if we as a state can offer equality through marriage, our similarities will have the power to overcome our differences.

JAZMINE  JORDAN

FRESHMAN

LETTERS AND SCIENCES