What started as a class project for four Michigan State University graduate students regarding parking advocacy might just leave the classroom and come to fruition.
The students, all studying social work, came together through a course about policy practice and advocacy, where they were asked to find a topic of interest to focus on for the semester. After realizing they all had similar grievances with parking while commuting to campus in the evenings, they decided to center their project on that issue.
As the work continued, their advocacy took the form of a campaign called MSU Parking Advocates, which seeks to make parking on campus free from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. from Monday through Friday and improve safety for commuters traveling to Lot 89 – located south of the main campus on Farm Lane – through increased accessibility of CATA bus services and installing emergency phones…