by Sally Bollen
Contributing Writer

As SCC students fight for parking spaces after the closure of the “Pit,” one teacher has turned the imposition into a teachable moment.

Turning panic into productivity, economics professor Tim Payne molded the campus crisis into a class project for his economics students. The students spend their time in groups, brainstorming ideas for resolving the parking problem and gathering data so that they can put their plans into action.

The project is an interdisciplinary marriage of economics and environmental science. Payne’s economics classes mainly focus on how the parking situation is an example of supply and demand, and what can be done to lower the demand for parking in favor of more sustainable alternatives.

The environmental science classes, led by professor Matthew Loper, plan to research how SCC manages and effects its environment, both positively and negatively.

Payne is hopeful that this project will not only benefit the college, but his students as well, perhaps by prompting more students to get involved with searching for solutions to this dilemma.

Payne says that the idea for the project began on the first day of class when he defined economics for his students as “figuring out how to get what you want with limited resources.”

Upon asking his class for examples in their own lives, parking came up unanimously as a scarce resource. From there, an idea was born.

“It’s a lot more work for me,” Payne admitted. “But it makes me feel good.”

It is possible that the project could not have come at a better time. Stuart Trippel, the Acting Vice President of Administrative Services, is well aware of the parking issues. “Fall quarter is always our worst quarter for parking,” he said.

With nearly 10,000 registered students at SCC and 600 potential parking spaces lost, campus parking is certainly a concern, more than ever before.

Trippel said that for the moment, the Sears lot is a very comfortable option, mainly because it’s free and offers nearly half of the lost stalls from the “Pit.” But he admits that SCC could be doing more to educate its students on alternative transportation, perhaps even providing incentives for those who choose not to drive to school.

Payne believes that the loss of the “Pit” is not a problem without solutions. His classes have listed their ideas, the most prominent being subsidized bus passes for SCC students and increased prices for parking permits—an attempt to tip the balance of supply and demand for parking.

Payne’s students are on campus, gathering the necessary data in hopes that SCC and King County Metro can come to an agreement about the passes and perhaps on expanded bus services to meet the needs of the students.

The hands-on approach of this project is what Payne hopes to be the draw for students, and it fits into his personal philosophy on teaching. “The best way to learn economics is to solve a problem that’s close to home,” said Payne. “There is a higher form of education,” he said, “and that’s active learning.”