Students are not giving up on preserving the parking on 27th Street.
Last week, the Des Moines City Council temporarily revoked the policy banning parking on the east side of the city street that runs between Jewett Residence Hall and Cartwright Law building. They deferred an official vote to approve the ban until the next meeting on Oct. 12.
Drake law student Bridgette Huntley (L2) drafted a petition to overturn the ban. She said the petition was signed by 300 Drake students, faculty and guests on the campus.
“After I did some investigation and found that the reasons (for the ban) were ill-founded, we wanted to make sure we weren’t the only students upset about this,” Huntley said.
The law student spoke at last week’s student senate meeting, asking senators to draft a resolution to quash the ban on 27th Street parking.
Huntley said that the Student Bar Association, the student governing body of the law school, had already drafted its own resolution against the ban.
On Sept. 22, Drake sent all students, faculty and staff an e-mail explaining that parking would no longer be permitted on the east side of 27th Street, between Carpenter Avenue and Forest Avenue. At the following week’s city council meeting, council members said that it was the first time they had seen the ban. Drake had previously submitted a request to the Traffic and Safety Committee for the ban. The committee recommended approval of the ban to the city council.
Huntley said that Drake implemented the ban before it had been officially approved by the city council.
“I think that any student that does a little research would have discovered the ban was preemptively put in place,” Huntley said.
After Huntley detailed her reasons for requesting the resolution, the senators began debate of the issue.
“We’re here to represent the student body, and I’ve heard a lot of students complaining there was already a lack of parking before the ban,” Sen. Carla Olszewski (J4) said. “This is a chance for us to support our fellow students.”
Several senators said they wanted more clarity on what the root of the issue was.
“I don’t think we should make this a parking issue, but one over whether Drake has done this properly or not,” Sen. Tyler Boggess (J4) said. “I don’t think we should write a resolution until the facts are straight.”
Sen. Eric Gudmundson (J4) said he was wondering why the issue had not been brought before the Student Parking Committee.
Student Body President Ben Olson (AS4), who sits on the committee, confirmed that the parking committee had not taken a vote on the matter.
“I’m open to negotiations,” Huntley said. “I just think there are a lot of alternatives we could open up discussion on.”
Huntley said she plans to attend the city council meeting on Oct. 12 to ensure the ban is not reinstated.
