Autopalooza? Really, UCI? Really?

My school's administrators live in a fantasy world where giant buildings should all have the same name ("Social Science Tower," "Social Science Plaza Building A," "Social Science Plaza Building B," "Social Science Lab"), William Pereira's brutalist original design for the campus should be totally disregarded in favor of office-building-looking monstrosities that bore me to tears, and, instead of trying to mitigate auto use by students, they hold an "Autopalooza" for them.



I heard about this when I went to the school's Parking & Transportation Office yesterday to submit my rail passes for the meager rebate they offer to me monthly. I picked up this horrifying flyer to get a closer look at the nightmare world it portrayed, and the friendly young lady processing my rebate was all like, "Oh yeah, you should stop by! It'll be really fun, there will be free food!" To which I replied, sweetly, "I don't have a car." So she told me to tell my friends. Then, later, after I'd taken the flyer home to show Bobby how ass-backwards my school is, I got an email today from the secretary of the Chicano/Latino Studies Department here inviting me to go. Oh, the disconnect!

I'm going to go and find out why in the world, in 2009, my university would be holding this event. Isn't it sad that they kowtow to people's carcentric mindsets instead of challenging them? Shouldn't college be a time when you try new things? Why would my school be giving free food to students who regularly drive Daddy's BMW 1/2 mile to school every day, instead of raising parking permit prices higher and working harder to improve transit connections in this area? Behind the motherfucking times, UCI!