Is Baylor Taking “Going Green” Too Far? CFACT Chairman Daniel Cervera answers, “Yes.”

Baylor

Baylor

Student parking is a very important issue on most college campuses -especially during winter! Some universities accommodate upward of 40,000 students every single day. Students need well lit lots for safety as well as plenty of spaces within a reasonable distance of classrooms.  Crowded parking lots can also be extremely stressful.

Despite concerns, CFACT Chairman Daniel Cervera has uncovered information that the university’s “sustainability” department, in-cahoots with the Sierra Club, is considering cutting student parking in order to strong-arm students into riding bicycles, buses, or walking in the name of “going green.”

In one of the Sierra Club’s “Cool School” surveys Baylor Sustainability Director Smith Getterman reveals his intentions:

Baylor Sustainability continually promotes the positive effects of riding a bicycle to class, rather than drive. We’ve also cut the number of parking spots on the interior of campus in order to encourage other methods of transportation.

Students are angry that the Sustainability Department has tried to manipulate them rather than just make an honest case for their position. Many also believe the university is taking “going green” too far. An editorial in the student newspaper highlights this starkly:

While these are efforts to create a greener, more eco-friendly campus, the university has gone too far and plans to go further. The university plans to remove the parking in front of Moody Memorial and Jesse H. Jones libraries.

These new plans to eliminate parking spaces hinder student life. Masquerading these plans as “student friendly” isn’t right either, and the university has ignored, time and time again, the loud and consistent protests of students irate at the hassle the university has made out of getting to class.

Unfortunately, manipulating students into walking and biking will be all pain, no gain for many students -especially during winter months when temperatures at Baylor can dip into the teens.

Due to concern, CFACT Chairman Daniel Cervera has drafted a bill opposing “green” reasons for decreased parking. He says that although he chooses to ride his bike to campus, he still does not believe Baylor should force students’ hands by eliminating parking.

Cervera has collected about 120 signatures for his petition, mostly at the Bill Daniel Student Center. “Once I have 1,000 signatures I plan to meet with the Sustainability Department to see if they are willing to reconsider,” he says.