President Oden announced last year that a new committee, the Campus Design Committee, would focus on the overall map of Carleton. At its first meeting last term, a Minneapolis based firm named Oslund and Associates presented and encouraged the college to redesign its parking.

The CSA appointees report: “Some of their ideas included a 2 storey parking lot (around 200 spaces), and restructuring the driveway from Scoville to Sayles into a “campus drive experience”.”

President Oden has committed Carleton to becoming Carbon Neutral, so why are we talking adding more parking?

In  many ways, this discussion mirrors the larger discussion of sustainability at Carleton. There is a dedicated group of students working on green projects like making the dining halls trayless or installing low-flow shower heads. This group is very active in CSA and the governance of the college.

Less often heard are the many students who don’t want to be bothered by green initiatives.

Chris Erickson, a 5th year Environmental Science intern, writes, “The great surprise for me thus far this year has been seeing the far greater seriousness about and energy toward the issue of environmental sustainability from the faculty and staff…  Students are entirely in favor of achieving carbon neutrality by external means: extra windmills, energy saving gadgets, magic buttons.  But few are very interested in any solution that factors in behavior: taking shorter showers, washing clothes with cold water, not using computers as often.”

The same logic applies to parking. It’s simply more convenient to have a car on campus, even if it isn’t necessary for most students. Where the rubber meets the road, students aren’t ready to give up their cars.