Students return to UNL parking problems
By Catherine Bialock
Staff Reporter
It’s a back-to-school nightmare that resur
faces every year, and one UNL student knows
it all too well.
Tony Oliva, a senior business major, has
faced the daily, dreaded parking hunt since he
first arrived on the University of Nebraska
Lincoln campus in 1991. After four years, one
would think the nightmare would be over.
But when Oliva returned to his car earlier
this week, a small, white envelope adorned his
windshield ... courtesy of UNL Parking Ser
vices. Inside, Oliva found a $25 ticket for
parking in an unauthorized area.
Doug Wagner, parking control supervisor,
said parking enforcers issued more than 49
tickets Wednesday morning. Lincoln Land
Towing records show 30 cars were towed from
university lots Wednesday. Seventy cars have
been towed from the campus this week.
The parking crackdown isn’t popular among
drivers, but it is necessary, said Tad McDowell,
parking services manager.
“We don’t have to give warnings,”
McDowell said. “We do have to get the reserve
lots cleaned out and the drives cleaned out.”
McDowell said an increased residence halli
population meant more cars on campus. An
nual permits also had exceeded expectations.
But the department enforcement policy hasn’t
changed, he said.
Officials answering complaints in the park
ing office said Wednesday afternoon that the
lines were long, and the phones were ringing
off the hook.
For Oliva, it was a story of mistaken iden
tification. He parked in a lot marked with a
green sign, matching the color of his Area 20
permit. But Oliva had found UNL’s only Area
21 lot, south of the Beadle Center.
“I called to see if I could switch my permit
from a 20 to 21 because the lot’s always
empty,” Oliva said. “She told me to come
down and appeal it.”
Permits went on sale in May, and sales will
continue until each lot reaches its maximum.
Sales for Area 20 student spaces were shut
down this week after4,600 permits were handed
out. That number represents a 100-permit cut
from the number sold last year.
But the number of permits sold doesn’t
match the number of stalls available — that’s
where the frustration begins.
“When you sell parking, you always sell
more than you have,” McDowell said. “The
trick is to what degree you oversell them.”
Lots are oversold because not all students,
faculty and staff are on campus at the same
time, he said. Commuter lots are the only ones
with a limit on overselling, he said.
But take heart, there are options.
Commuter students with Area 20 permits
can find parking relief in remote lots or in red
Area 10 (faculty and staff parking) lots after 3
p.m.
Wagner said parking enforcers mostly were
issuing warnings. But if someone complains
about an illegally parked car, it probably will
be ticketed or towed, he said.
More than 30 students lined up outside the
Parking Services building Wednesday to ap
peal tickets or to try for remaining permits.
Anger and frustration spread among those
welcomed back to classes with parking fines as
they waited in the late afternoon heat.
Others just picking up permits approached
the issue with less animosity.
“I think its fair,” said Tammy Broer, a
junior advertising major. “Everything’s set in
stone. 1 get my share of tickets. You leam just
to deal with it.” '
Students wanting to purchase permits for
reserved or Area 20 lots can put their names on
a waiting list, McDowell said.
In the meantime, he said, the crackdown
will continue.
“This business isn’t as cut and dried as
everyone might think,” he said. “I have to
make 50 decisions per day on who to tow, who
not to tow.
“We feel we’ve given all kinds of warn
ings.”
Associate News Editor Brian Sharp contributed to
this story.
-X
University of Nebraska-Lincoln JllSt A Reminder
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//r additional cost. To receive your pass,
Aug. '95 - Aug. '96 simply present your University
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rree program oners
options for success
By John Fulwider
Staff Reporter
A free resource is available on
campus for students wanting to suc
ceed in their classes but worried they
might fail.
The Supplemental Instruction pro
gram started last year under the di
rection of the Division of General
Studies. The program offers assis
tance to students in six “difficult”
courses.
Tom Meyers, a former SI supervi
sor, said the program helps students
get better grades, learn better study
and thinking skills and meet other
students in an intellectual environ
ment.
The program began in fall 1994.
Meters’ study of Si’s effectiveness
showed an across-the-board improve
ment'," he said. Si students improved
by half a letter grade, he said, and SI
students in history improved by as
much as 1 1/2 letter grades.
The study sessions are offered in
one section each of Chemistry 109,
History 100, Sociology 101, Biology
101 and Political Science 100. Two
sections of Psychology 181 are being
offered.
~ Courses were chosen because of
their high dropout and failure rates.
Last year, he said, as many as 36
students attended each session.
Meyers said 556 individual students
attended at least one session.
Meyers said he expected more stu
dents to take advantage of the SI
program this year because it had be
come more well-known.
The program is not a tutoring class,
Meyers said. Instead, it is a peer
facilitated study group. Each group is
led by an undergraduate student who
recently (usually the previous semes
ter) succeeded in that course.
That creates an environment where
the leader is not seen as the answer
man, Meyers said. The leader instead
is.a resource to help SI students find
the answer themselves, he said.
Cathie Wellman, a sophomore
political science and history major, is
a returning SI leader. Wellman said
participants in the program got more
than just higher grade point averages.
“We showed them that it’s not just
memorizing a fact,” she said. “It’s
about tying knowledge from differ
ent areas together to see how it fits
into the bigger picture.”
Wellman said SI helped students
in their personal lives, too.
“When a freshman comes into a
class that’s bigger than their town
and doesn’t know anybody in there,
they can be in big trouble,” she said.
“They really gained socially,” she
said of SI participants. Not only did
they make friends, they also made
valuable study partners, she said.
The typical SI session begins with
friendly, informal chitchat ,Uv4o0®pn j
everyone up, Meyers said. There is
the occasional mock quiz so students
can practice test-taking skills.
The leader might then suggest an
area to work on, he said, or students
could identify an area they need help
in and ask questions. Everything is
focused on the needs of the students,
Meyers said.
Contrary to a previous Daily Ne
braskan report, the SI program is not
a restart of the Academic Success
Center’s SI program, he said. The
ASC also had a supplemental in
struction program, but they are not
related, Meyers said.
Meyers said there was no com
parison between the current SI pro
gram and the ASC’s offerings. SI
focused its services on particular
courses, while ASC taught study skills
as a separate area of study.
To get involved in SI, students
must be enrolled in one of the course
sections that offer the program. They
can then attend any SI session with
out signing up or making a reserva
tion.
“Really, all you’ve got to do is just
show up,” Meyers said.
Warp ov<
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