Every great institution has its problems, and UD is no exception. There reaches a point when problems become intolerable and things need to change.

Well, it's reached that point, and some things need to change on UD's campus.

Let's paint a picture, shall we? Student John Doe, who has a parking pass for lot S2, leaves to go home for the weekend. On his return Sunday, his pass has fallen from his rear-view mirror and as he locks his car to head back to his apartment, the pass lays on the ground. One week later, he decides to make another trip home, but is shocked to find his car booted. During the week he was given four or five tickets and a boot on his car, yet was not contacted.

You may be asking, 'Why didn't Parking Services contact him after his second or third ticket? Surely they must have noticed a pattern after two or three days of the same exact vehicle being in the same exact spot.' Well, that's a good question. According to UD Parking Services (UDPS), 'It is the driver's responsibility to make sure the pass is in place.' Why yes, it is. But, everyone makes a mistake sooner or later, right? And what about UDPS's responsibility to safeguard its students from this sort of tragic disservice? UDPS will strike two tickets from the record in an instance like this, and only two, leaving poor John with two more tickets, a boot and an impound charge to pay off. And to think, all this over an accident John wasn't even aware of.

But this isn't the only disservice to students on campus. I would wager that a great many owners of the value-pack Tangent Notebook can sympathize with the plight of students who have needed significant repairs on their products after less than a year, sometimes even months, after getting them.

But even smaller injustices are afoot on campus.

Jane Doe, walking back from John's Campus South apartment, arrives at her Marycrest door only to realize that she left her keys at John's. With her roommate gone and her RA unable to help, she walks downstairs to the lobby helpdesk. 'Ten dollars!' she exclaims after hearing the cost to get back into her room. Yes, that's right, a ten dollar fee to have someone walk upstairs to let her into her own room.

Now I ask, are there not any mistakes you can make where the university will help you for no cost? Why yes, there are. For the drunken person on a Thursday night, Mom's Limo will come to their rescue and take them home. And thank goodness for it! It's important that UD students be safeguarded and protected, even when making mistakes. Now shouldn't innocents, like John and Jane, be offered that same kind of indiscriminatory service?

To the administration of the university, I put forth this challenge: Address the problems put to light by this article so that the university can serve its students properly, rather than impair them.

It would be a terrible shame for a university with so many strengths to have its image befouled and tainted by the injustices inflicted from a few corrupt institutions.