Turnquest 1

Janelle Turnquest
English 101
16 November 2014

Freshman Should Have Cars Too

There are plenty of things that the freshman class at Emory University has to get used to
in order to survive through the year. In that way we are no different than freshmen at any other
college. For most, this is the longest time weve gone without seeing our parents. For most, this
is the first time living in a different state and for some maybe even a different country. As if that
wasnt life changing enough, for all, it is the first time we have to make our everyday decisions
on our own. What separates Emory University from some other schools is that it does not allow
their freshman class to have a vehicle on campus. The transition to college would be much easier
if we were able to have a source of transportation that was ours. Wouldnt it be nice to just hop
in the car to get some groceries for your dorm room, or go out and explore one of the best cities
that exists, Atlanta, or just go to a movie to debrief from the stressful weeks that go by? All of
these things were so accessible before attending Emory University and now theyre not. Some
think preventing freshmen from having a car on campus is great while others think that the rule
is an issue. The rule has been in effect since at least 1997. My understanding is that the rule
serves two purposes. The rule encourages freshman to participate with on-campus activities.
Without a car they are more likely to stay on campus or to use the transportation opportunities
offered to groups of students rather than individual travel. The other purpose was to reduce the
demand for parking (Dean Nair). While Emorys rule has two main purposes there are too
exceptions and missed opportunities that this rule doesnt consider. As stated in Megan Wilsons

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article, its important to decide how and why a car can help you. A freshman at Emory
University doesnt even have the opportunity to contemplate the reasons why they should or
shouldnt bring their car. Wilson mentions that a students car could be either a necessity, a
convenience, or just a comfort. Emory University should give the freshman class an option
to decide whether or not they would like to have a car on campus because there are loads of
opportunities being missed along with the extreme inconvenience it causes on a day to day basis.
There are many people who would have a lot to say about the reasons why freshmen
shouldnt be allowed to have cars on Emory Universitys campus. There are two main questions
practically every incoming freshman asks themselves when thinking about what things really
want to bring on campus? One, does the university allow cars on campus? If yes, then will their
parents let them bring their car to campus? Parents and the people who are in Parking and
Transportation on Emorys campus seem to be the two most important perspectives on this
topic.
Emory University isnt alone when it comes to banning cars from their campus.
According to Campus Car Bans there are multiple schools that have also chosen to restrict the
freshman class of their university and not allow them to have vehicles. On this list lies both
Purdue University and Bowdoin University. According to Purdues website only a select few
freshman are allowed to have cars. They have a special process where freshman apply to be in a
lottery and whomever is selected is allowed to bring their car to campus after the schools
October break. Bowdoin University however has a very similar take on the issue to Emory.
Bowdoins President, Barry Mills, states Having a car at Bowdoin is mostly a luxury, and
hardly ever a necessity. While this is a comment specifically to his school, this satisfies the
ideas of most when it comes to what Emorys point on the subject is. Bowdoin University also

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believes that allowing freshman to not have cars create a common experience for first-year
students at a time when socioeconomic diversity continues to expand at Bowdoin. Clearly to
Bowdoin University it is important that their students who come from all different backgrounds
have this commonality and share the same experience of having to learn how to be independent
without having a car. Emorys view is very similar in the way they want freshmen to be involved
in campus life and campus activities. While this is an understandable stance, there are plenty of
opportunities for students to share commonalities with other students having vehicles that will
make it much easier for students to go and explore the new towns and cities they are either near
or in for the first time. For Emory students Atlanta is one of the biggest, most fun, and innovative
cities to be able to utilize and it isnt the most convenient or the cheapest thing to do without a
car.
Emory University could easily argue that there are plenty of other ways to get around the
city and that they even offer some of them. The public transportation is a cheap way to get from
place to place. It goes by the name of Marta. The issue with using Marta is that it could take up
to one or two hours just to get somewhere that could take a person only thirty minutes in a car
because of all the stops the bus has to make. More important than the lengthy rides, there is an
unspoken rule that Marta is not supposed to be ridden by young adults between the hours of eight
PM and eight AM. If you ask any student what is one thing that you have learned about riding
Marta they will most likely tell you that at night you are to not ride that bus because you could be
attacked or feel uncomfortable in one way shape or form. According to Emorys Parking and
Transportation there is the Night Owl which is Emorys own shuttle during late hours of the day
but that too isnt safe to be on alone at night. Also according to Emory University:
Transportation and Parking there is the Emory option to rent a car for the day through

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Enterprise Car Share. Enterprise Car Share sounds great. Any student over the age of eighteen
who has a license from any country for at least a year and also has less than two incidents in the
past three years and does not have any alcohol violations could rent a car! Gas is included when
a student first rents the car and there is a daily charge or an hourly charge depending on how
long the student has the car rented out for. It sounds like a very easy process to drive all around
the city or grab groceries or go downtown and do something special, which it is. Unfortunately
this eventually becomes too expensive. The prices begin to add up and it becomes too much
money to just go out for the little things. Uber and Lyft are two very great mobile apps that allow
anyone to put their current location in and have a personal car pick that person up from wherever
they are. It is extremely convenient when thinking about the efficiency of getting from one
location to another and how comfortable and easy it is to get from place to place. Of course as
great as this sounds, and is, this too becomes way too expensive for a college student to use.
Sometimes it could cost a person ten dollars just to travel two miles. With all of these
transportation ideas it seems that there is always an ultimatum. Does a student choose to go the
cheap route and possibly put themselves in danger or does the student choose the route that
becomes much more expensive but is much safer and more efficient? When parents think about
the alternatives to what their children need to use in order to get around it seems that all the
possible situations their children could end up dont always come to mind.
Despite that however, parents are also sometimes in favor of not allowing their children
have vehicles at school. If someone were to think like a parent that person would easily come to
the conclusion that it is important to be cost effective and to be safe. With that being said,
according to Aggressive Behavior While Driving as Predictor of Self-reported Car Crashes
which was a study done to prove that reckless driving and car crashes coincide together which in

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fact they do. Parents dont want their sons and daughters to get in the car after having a drink that
contains alcohol, nor do they want their kids getting into the car with someone else who has done
the same. When a car is easy access it is much more probable that something like that could
happen. Along with that, just like the study said, reckless driving and car accidents correlate and
it is very well known that the people in Atlanta drive crazy and drive fast. It can be hard for
experienced drivers to keep up and have good defensive driving skills but it is even harder for
drivers who have had their license for two years at the most to keep up. Parents have every right
to be worried about that but it is time for freshman in college to learn how to drive safely while
chaotic things are happening around them. Not only that but they have to trust their children to
make good decisions about who they may or may not get into a vehicle with. Right behind the
safety aspects comes the money aspect. Emory University charged their students six hundred and
sixty-five dollars to park their cars for the year. Compare Emorys costs of a parking permit to a
campus like Union College for example. According to Union College they charge their students
fifteen dollars for a parking permit. There are plenty of things that could affect the costs of a
parking permit but Emorys price is extremely high compared to many. Along with parking
permits, there is a good possibility that theres just not enough money to build other parking
garages which would be needed if freshman were allowed to bring their cars. The only place on
campus where freshman would be able to park as of now is the Peavine parking deck and there
arent enough spots there to accommodate that. The solution to that problem would to be
increase the price of the parking permit to where it needed to be to where a new parking deck
could be built and allow people to make a decision about if they would buy it or not. If the
parents still say okay and are willing to pay that much money then their child should be allowed
to have their car on campus.

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Should My College Student Have a Car on Campus? brings up questions for parents
and teens to think about. When many students think about the luxuries of bringing their cars they
often dont think about how comfortable and willing they would be to allowing their friends to
borrow their cars, or to be the designated driver all the time, or to think about how they are going
to pay for parking tickets as they start to appear. According to this source these are the kind of
things that have to be thought about both by parents and the freshman who would be put into
those situations.
Despite how hard it would be and despite the alternative options there are to get around,
after interviewing multiple students from Emory University, it is clear that freshmen would like
to have their car. Anna Fuhr, a freshman at Emory replied with It sucks and I absolutely hate it.
All I want to do is have a car. I volunteer for kids and I have to rent a car in order to get to them
and there are often times that I want or need to get off campus for food and it is really starting to
get expensive and I hate having to take an Uber as well because that too is expensive when
asked about how she feels about not being able to have her car here on campus. Another
freshman, Ashley Powers replied with I would really like to be able to have a car because I
would be able to go home and get off campus for things, but it is also doable to not have a car
even though I dont really like it at all. An Emory sophomore, Hannah Meyer, stated I dont
have the money to have a car on campus but it wouldve been really nice to have a car for my
freshman year because there were multiple things that I would want to do but wasnt able to do
because I couldnt drive myself nor did I have the money to always pay for an Uber trip
somewhere. Not having a car has seemed like much of hassle to many of the freshmen students
here at Emory University. A freshman from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas by
the name of Abby Argo who is allowed to have her car on campus said I LOVE having my car!

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I use it every day and it is great. We do everything from airport runs to seeing sporting events to
going out to the movies to going to target and getting food. If I didnt have my car my freshman
year would be totally different when asked how does it feel to be able to have your car on
campus? Along with Abby Argo, Christine Evans, another freshman from the University of
North Texas who is also allowed to have her car said I love having my car on campus! It gives
me a chance to explore the new place I live! I hate the lack of parking there is tough because
sometimes it is difficult for me to find parking. I also think it limits freshmen to what theyre
allowed to do. Not only does it seem much better to own a vehicle on campus because of how
much easier things would be, it is also another safety issue. I was personally stranded twice out
in the night because my phone has unexpectedly died and then I have no way to contact anyone
without asking some else to use their phone to call a taxi. If I am lucky, like I was once, I was
able to get someone who I knew to call someone else for me to get me an Uber because I
couldnt order one myself with a dead phone. It isnt the best situation to be in having to rely on
technology to get you home safely.
Despite all the reasons that there are that Emory University has decided to not to allow
their freshman class to not have cars, it should be a time to think about reconsidering the idea of
having freshman have their cars on campus. When talking to the freshmen who were allowed to
have their cars on campus it was obvious that the freshmen here at Emory University were
missing out on something. Those students are able to have freedom. While it is manageable to
not have a car on campus it would be really nice. There are so many people that get homesick
their first year and who live close far enough away from home to not make the trip often but
close enough to make the trip sometimes but they cant because they dont have their car.
Exploring the Atlanta and going out on excursions and having the ability to get food that isnt

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either on campus, or Dunkin Donuts, or at Emory Village would be so nice. People are right,
freshmen dont need cars on campus to survive, but it would make surviving that much easier
and ultimately thats what freshman year is about.

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Work Cited
Argo Abby. Telephone Interview. 3 Nov. 2014
Download PDFs." Aggressive Behavior While Driving as Predictor of Self-reported Car
Crashes. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022437502000531
Campus Car Bans." Campus Car Bans. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.aashe.org/resources/campus-car-bans
"Campus News." Bowdoin to Ban Cars for First-Year Students in 2009, (Bowdoin). N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov.
2014. http://www.bowdoin.edu/news/archives/1bowdoincampus/005338.shtml

Evans Christine. Telephone Interview. 3 Nov. 2014

Frequently Asked Questions:." Emory University: Transportation and Parking Services. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2014. <http://transportation.emory.edu/view/view_faqs/&faqcat=1090
Fuhr Anna. In Person Interview. 10 Nov 2014
Meyer Hannah. Telephone Interview. 3 Nov. 2014
Nair Dean. Email Interview. 18 Nov. 2014
Parking and Traffic." - Campus Safety. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2014.
http://www.union.edu/offices/safety/parking/
Should My College Student Have a Car on Campus?" College Parents of America. N.p., n.d.
Web. 04 Nov. 2014. http://www.collegeparents.org/members/resources/articles/shouldmy-college-student-have-car-campus

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Undergraduate Housing :: Parking & Transportation." Undergraduate Housing :: Parking &
Transportation. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.emory.edu/HOUSING/UNDERGRAD/parktrans.html
"Parking." Parking. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
http://www.housing.purdue.edu/ResidentialLife/parking.html

Powers Ashley. In Person Interview. 10 Nov 2014

Wilson, Megan. "Freshmen: Should I Bring My Car to Campus? - Smart College Visit."Smart
College Visit. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.smartcollegevisit.com/2010/07/freshmen-should-i-bring-my-car-tocampus.html