If you could fix these things, I'd vote for you

Well, the polls are just hours from closing, and it appears as though I'll lose my third straight run at the IU Student Association presidency. It's not much of a disappointment, though, considering I wasn't even running. Nevertheless, if I were president, I'd try my best to get some things done. This campus is plagued with many problems that even the IUSA can't tackle, but here are some issues that are worth fighting for.\nParking\nThere need to be some requirements to be able to operate a vehicle on campus. There's just too many cars here. I could suggest the traditional method of seniority, where only juniors and seniors are allowed to have cars, but that wouldn't be fair. A lottery is too fair, so I suggest the following idea: only those with a certain grade point average can have cars on campus. Because, hey, if you're too dumb to get a 1.3 on this campus, you're probably too dumb to be operating a motor vehicle in the first place. \nIn no way am I degrading those with less than impressive GPAs. I'm more concerned with running IU Parking Operations out of business. For those owing money to Parking Operations, we should require a payment-by-coinage-only system. That's right, no checks, no bills. Just coins. There is no better feeling of revenge when you see the helplessness and confusion in the cashier's eyes when you hand her a 13-pound sack of nickels and pennies. I'm not positive, but I'm willing to bet that counting $30 in pennies probably takes a lot of time.\nRegistration\nWhy, on one of the most technologically advanced campuses in the nation, do we have to drag ourselves over to the registration center when it could clearly be done from any computer on campus? And why does it cost at least $8 to change your schedule? As if deleting a class from my electronic file is really worth $8 of work. I don't think so.\nTax-free Textbooks\nThis is an issue gaining momentum, but the truth is, I really don't care. My theory is if I'm shelling out $75 for a book, the extra $5 isn't really going to kill me. Protest the fact that books cost such an absurd amount in the first place. Suddenly the tax becomes less important if you're only paying $35 for the same book.\nAlcohol\nEither let alcohol back on campus or enforce the current laws with a more determined effort. We can't afford to lose any more people. Every student who drinks irresponsibly is taking his life into his own beer-holding hands, and students need both education and a consistent enforcement policy.\nBut the responsibility does not lie entirely in the hands of the University. Greeks need to realize that serious things (injury, rape and death) can, have and will occur on their premises, during their activities. Greek houses must take even more steps to reduce the risk of such incidents occurring.\nFaculty Retention\nIU has seen numerous professors depart for other universities due to low salaries. An institution is only as good as those giving knowledge to students, and we must take a proactive approach to retaining these individuals. If it means a higher tuition, then so be it, but I'd rather pay a few extra dollars and get a better education than learn from an associate instructor who's more concerned with earning his Ph.D than teaching his discussion section.\nBus System\nBloomington Transit is scoring major points with off-campus commuters by allowing them to ride free when presenting a valid IU ID. A similar plan needs to be implemented with the campus bus system.\nNapster\nIt's a little late for this, since the Supreme Court shut down Napster, but the University backed down on this one too early. After Metallica threatened litigation last April, IU pulled the plug on students' ability to connect to the site on the University network, despite the fact that at the time, the courts hadn't ruled the service illegal. At this very moment, on the verge of death, Napster is still legally operating. IU should not have chickened out so early. When a state-funded university caves in to a rock band, things aren't looking up for the state of education. \nI know that relatively few things on this list will ever be solved, but hey, we've got to start somewhere, right? As such, my campaign for the 2002 student body president begins here.