Savanah DeAguero

Assignment 1
Engl 2210
Profesor Sofia Tarabrina

UNM Parking

Table of contents
Front Matter
Introduction pg. 3
Methodology pg. 4 & 5
Resource 1
Resource 2
Resource 3
Resource 4
Results pg. 6
Discussion pg.7
Conclusion with recommendations pg. 8
Work cited pg. 9
Reflection pg. 10 & 11
SLO Reflection pg. 12

Introduction
 Due to the majority of UNM students driving to school I think that there should be a
better bus system. Many students have complained that where they park makes them late to
class. Unm has a bus system but the problem with that bus system is that they say the buses
never run. Getting more transportation buses to run at unm would be good not only for the
students but for the school as well. When students are looking at colleges they want to go to they
look for a number of certain things that fit what they want in a college. For many the first is cost,
that major they are pursuing is at the college, campuses, sometimes distance, and a few other
things like parking come to mind when trying to select a college to attend. For example if a
student was trying to choose between one college and another but one of the colleges has better
parking areas then they are going to go with the one that benefits them most.
I have a friend that parks in one of the parking areas at UNM. The parking area is T lot.
She says that the bus that takes you to the school never runs. When she wants to ride it she is
scared that the bus may never come and she will be late to class. She ends up having to walk to
campus. You might think it's ok walking. What's the big deal? The problem with this is that
many students including me and this friend both have late classes. Walking all the way to T lot at
night is very dangerous, especially more so for girls. It also doesn't help that the area in which
UNM is located is a dangerous part of town.

Methodology
 At UNM there are “as many as 50,000 drivers fighting for a parking space of about
13,000”. So what do the rest of them do? Many park in areas and hope they get out of class
before a transportation employee issues them a parking ticket. “More than 53,000 parking tickets
were given in the 2014-15 school year”. Our campus is an open campus for anyone. We have
many visitors causing the parking to be even more difficult.
Many students,teachers,visitors,etc. want to be able to park near the building they need to
go to. But that is not possible for everyone. Most students get a parking pass to a certain area on
campus. But even having a parking pass is difficult. One the good parking areas such as Yale
parking structure sells out of their parking passes so fast, like within minutes. This causes the rest
of the students to have to choose a different area that is a far walk from campus. They do have a
bus system for those other parking areas, but what students don't know is that this bus system is
not as good as many would have hoped.
The other thing about parking is it's not cheap. Spending hundreds of dollars on a parking
pass to park far from campus does not sound appealing to struggling college students. Not only
that but many students only have 1 class on campus a day or 2 classes on campus for the week.
For this reason many students rely on the parking meters on campus. Why would they pay so
much for a parking pass when they only need to park for an hour or so. Especially due to the
horrible transportation from the far parking areas causing a far walk.
Not everyone can afford a parking pass at UNM due to the costs. Has Unm tried fixing
this problem? kinda , I found an article that states that “UNM has a permit refund for students.
Students must submit a request before a certain date. Following the request a student must
complete the online form and must submit a picture of their parking permit cut in half in order
for their request to be processed”.
Students have gotten very frustrated with the parking at UNM. Students started leaving a
yellow ticket envelope on their car so that they aren't issued another one. Many students started
parking at the places across campus to avoid the UNM parking situation causing the restaurant
owners to get mad. If their parking spots are taken how are they able to get business? The
restaurant owners now keep an eye on their parking areas and tow the violators.
But the question is why are students using other parking areas other than the ones UNM
offers? This is due to safety. Walking to certain lots at night is very scary. Students want to feel
safe walking on campus. What can help with this problem is streetlights, security
cameras.Students pushed at the legislature to fund for the new lights. With more lights and new
security cameras this can cause the crime rate to drop, and help students feel a bit safer while on
campus, especially for the students walking to their parking lots late at night.
Another thing students can fear is their cars getting broken into. The parking areas at
UNM are in such locations that it can easily get broken into. This can also be due to the location
UNM is located in. In recent studies “more cars are stolen at UNM campus than any other
campus in the country. In 2016 the University reported 140 vehicle thefts and attempted thefts.”
This is a problem UNM has to fix. How are students supposed to feel safe walking at night to
their cars when someone a few cars down could be breaking into it. This could cause UNM to
lose current and incoming students.
Results
The results I have discovered while observing the different parking areas is that I do see
UNM security driving around during parts of the day. I have not seen them at night which is
concerning for those who have late night classes. I have also seen UNM transportation
cars/trucks in parking areas checking to make sure cars are parked where they are supposed to be
parked. With observations from both now and last semester is that this semester I have seen more
transportation people checking and giving out tickets then I did see last semester.
Even if we are seeing UNM security during the day, how does that help students that
have late night classes and have to park very far from their classes? After a certain hour students
can park anywhere on campus without getting ticketed, which is good for those who come on
campus before their late class but what about those who have 2 classes back to back before that
time and then have to walk in the dark and cold in such a dangerous area of Albuquerque? Yes
there is a bus system but what if the bus never comes? This is where streetlights and security
cameras come into the picture. Even though streetlights and security cameras aren't particularly
going to keep you safe, at least others on the road can see you and if anything happens the
cameras will catch it.
The best thing to do to not have this problem is a better bus system to the parking areas
further from campus. This will make many students very happy and will keep students safe and
make them feel safe.

Discussion
With these results I think that although there are security people driving around campus it
is useless for them to not be driving around at night as well. Our campus is very alive some
nights in certain areas but then in other areas like where our parking spots are it is dead, no one
in sight. I think that having to walk such a far distance is very dangerous at night. I also think
having to wait for a bus is crazy because one it may never show up two it's so cold outside
especially now in the winter it makes you want to get to your car as fast as possible and three our
campus is in a very dangerous part of town with so many homeless near and on our campus.

Conclusion with recommendations

Not to say anything bad about homeless people but they make many people
uncomfortable, especially us women. The traffic of people around UNM is what makes it feel
less safe for us students. Due to us feeling unsafe the parking situation needs to be fixed. I have
listed many ways for UNM to help make campus feel safer for those who park so far from their
classes/ buildings they need to get to. But the main thing to fix is the bus system. That will be the
most efficient way for students to feel safe and get to their parking areas. This can also be
effective for the school as students will park in their designated parking areas. If students felt
safe and had an efficient bus system for them to be picked up at their parking areas then they
might park in their parking areas rather than in areas closer to campus they are not supposed to
park.
I recommend hiring more people to run the buses. We already pay so much money to
UNM for our parking spots; they should use some of the money to pay for more shuttles to be
run throughout the day and all day long. If UNM wants their students to be happy and stay on
their campus they should be able to make them feel like their safety matters.
What can happen in the future for UNM is they can lose students. I know it's not the main
cause which can drastically change UNM, but it can cause some students to leave UNM and or
just not choose to go to school there in the first place. As students we want to feel safe on
campus where we are learning and we want the facilities/other accommodations to be of use to
us especially because we are paying for it.

Thank you for your time,

Savannah DeAguero
sdeaguero2@unm.edu
505-927-8334

Work cited
Dyer, Jessica “UNM to get New lights, Security Cameras” Albuquerque Journal (NM), 25 Apr.
2018. EBSCOhost, search-ebscojost-com.libprox.unm.edu/login.aspx?
direct=true$db=pwh&AN=2W63716886859&site=pov-live.
Quintana, Chris. “Parking Problems.” Albuquerque Journal (NM),28 Mar.2016. EBSCOhost,
search-ebscohost-com.libproxy.unm.edu/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=pwh&AN=2W6713771176&site=pov-live.
EDITORIAL: UNM Needs to Lock down Solutions to Auto Thefts.” Albuquerque Journal(NM),
12 July 2018. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=pwh&AN=2W6382581644&site=pov-live.
“Unm Parking & Transportation Offers Refunds for Parking Permit Holders.”Indian EGov
Newswire, 27 Mar.2020. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login .aspx?
direct=truw&db=edsign&AN=edsgcl.618649994live&scope=site.

Reflection

I found it very difficult to choose the problem in my community to use as my

recommendation report. I wasnt that my community doesn't have problems, it was due to me
being very indecisive. I have a hard time when I have to choose a topic for an assignment. I
always worry about if the topic is not going to be interesting enough, if I'm going to find enough
information about my topic, if I'm going to have enough background knowledge, etc. The topic I
ended up doing was a recommendation about getting a better bus system. I chose this topic
because I know how indecisive I am, and when we were talking about a topic in our groups
someone mentioned this topic and I thought it was a really good idea. I first made sure they
weren't going to use this topic and when they said they weren't I took my opportunity to use it.
The process of making my choice about the methodology was first I looked up topics to
find my sources. I knew because this is more of a direct topic that it would be hard to find
scholarly sources. And I was right, it was very hard to find sources for my topic. Thank gosh I
only need 4 because that's literally the amount I found. I found the first three topics and they took
a while to find and then finding the forth was such a struggle. So once I found my 4 sources I
read them then I started writing. As I wrote it made it easier to choose where each source and the
information it told me would go on my paper. The reason I chose these sources was because they
were the only ones I found.
I found it easy to interpret the results because once you know enough information about
the topic you are using it should be easy to know your results. You often find your results in the
resources you use.
I found it pretty difficult to find/develop visual information. The reason for this is
because I didn't know if people would understand the reason/purpose for them. I think they fit
the project and make sense but they might not to others. I think the picture goes with my
recommendation and the graph supports it but the pictures were just off the internet and I don't
know if they support it but they definitely go with what I am trying to portray in my
recommendations report.
I found it very hard to follow the timeline for this project. I started off behind on the
project because I had other things due before this so those other assignments became my priority.
I then thought our rough draft was due a week before it was due and I became very ahead on my
project because it had become a priority since I thought it was due. I didn't not follow the
timeline in this project very well but I think I have put a lot of time into this recommendations
report project and I think it came together well.
How I will be able to transfer these skills from this project to my future workplace would
be being able to research and find data that I need using resourceful data. I will also know that
big projects take time and you must always be thinking about it and how you can improve it and
what else you can add. I also gained that if you want to be taken seriously you must have
appropriate sources that can backup your claim.
My project was well thought out. I did a lot of research. I only found 4 sources that I
thought would be resourceful and accurate information. My sources are about my topic and take
it into different reasons as to why we need a better transportation system other than just because
students are complaining about it and I think that made my report even better. I truly believe that
the transportation system needs to be fixed not because students are lazy but because there are
lots of other problems that lead to this one problem.
SLO Reflections

SLO 1
I used Project planning in this project to get everything done on time. First I had to find a topic
and that took a while. Then I researched the topic then realized that the topic wasn't going to
work for me. I then became behind on my time schedule. My new topic I chose was a topic that
us students have to deal with on a day to day basis. This topic stood out to me because my friend
has to deal with this problem everyday. I helped her by giving her a ride to her car after our late
math class. Our math class ends at 6:45 at night and by that time it is freezing and dark.So my
topic complaint was to fix the UNM bus system. I didn't have to do much research as I already
knew quite a bit about this topic. Not only does my friend complain about our UNM
transportation system but nearly every UNM student does. This is a big problem on our campus
that needs to be fixed. I asked 20 students if they wanted a better bus system or if they even
cared and every single person said yes we need a better bus system. I think I was able to
complete this project pretty well within the time given, although I did have some bumps along
the way. The bumps would include the 2 revision/peer review as I didn't have the time to do that.

SLO 4
I used Organizational design in this project as I had to describe the scenario of what is happening
and why we need a better bus system. This scenario is a real issue that students at UNM face.I
conducted outside research to prove that what I'm saying is not only what I think, but something
more serious that needs to be handled/fixed. I personally have not experienced having to deal
with the transportation system or having to walk all the way to the far parking lots so I used other
peoples experiences for my project. People I know that deal with the transportation system were
my sources and because they complain everyday about this problem I had a lot of knowledge
about this topic and if I needed any information I would just ask them.

SLO 8
I used Content Management in this project by writing a professional recommendation report
about a real problem our school has. This issue affects the majority of the students at UNM on a
daily basis. My report gave information about the problem and how it affects students. I
managed the wording in my report to make sure it sounded professional. I didn't use slang and I
made sure to try and get my point across fast and smoothly. I also provided an image and 2
graphs that showed my results when asking 20 students if they wanted a better buss system or if
they didn't care.