Ha ha, he got THE BOOT
Some Dartmouth kid wrote an op-ed today complaining about parking at Dartmouth.
My first experience with the parking dictators occurred when I was unloading my car and moving into my dorm room as a sophomore. In no less than 20 minutes, I was given a $50 ticket by Parking Operations. Fortunately, I was planning to park in the town parking garage and could avoid paying the ticket by not registering my car with the school. This game continued throughout my sophomore year, as I did everything I could to avoid receiving more tickets from the College.Fast forward to Sophomore Summer. I was paying $200 to park at a fraternity halfway across campus because the best Dartmouth could offer its students was an open lot two-thirds of a mile from the Green. I had built up about $200 in parking fines over the past few terms -- keep in mind that's only four parking tickets -- and had driven my car to the Tucker Foundation to pick up mentors so that we could drive to our program in West Lebanon. You can imagine my surprise when, after being inside the building for less than 10 minutes, I came out to find my car booted in the visitor's parking spot.
Translation: I am not sly enough to park on campus without getting dinged repeatedly for parking violations. Also, a 10-minute walk to get my car is OH SO TERRIBLY HEINOUS WHAT A CRIME AGAINST OVERPRIVILEGED WHINERS EVERYWHERE.
Now. I definitely got 2 parking tickets over 4 years at school, both for parking in the Mid-Mass lot. Never got The Boot. Never registered my car, as I lived off campus and parked at my house. I'll agree that Dartmouth's parking policies are a little bit ridiculous, but whinging about it without seeming to have put a moment's thought into why the parking situation might be as it is (and there are good reasons, as anyone who has spoken to College employees knows) sure makes somebody look like an idiot.