I am appalled, as a 40-year-old female OSU student, at the behavior of the construction crews on the shuttles and in the Buckeye Lot, as well as the tolerance of their actions by Transportation and Parking Services.

Not only do the crews share our parking lot, but they arrive before most students or before most scheduled classes. They line their trucks up in the prime spots on all sides around the shuttle stop during the peak times of need. With spring arriving and construction projects certain to increase, this problem will only grow over the quarter.

After nine hours on campus, the construction crews begin to crowd onto the buses just as classes are released. I have observed or experienced these large, healthy (mostly) men push their way past me or other people, getting onto a shuttle while we’re asked to wait for the next one, or the one after that, which is especially unpleasant in nasty weather.

When they’ve each left the bus to get into their individual large-cab trucks, they then aggressively force their way into waiting traffic, often recklessly rushing through to the far end of the lot (not where they parked) to make their exit out to Ackerman Road much faster than waiting patiently with the students.

As a student paying full tuition and parking, as well as that for my 19-year-old son, I find this behavior, as well as the tolerance by Transportation and Parking Services, unacceptable. Construction crews should be required to park at a far end of the lot and the cruisers can ensure compliance by the different parking badge displayed on their mirror.

They should respect the young women on the shuttles.

Transportation and Parking Services needs to play a more active role in the presence on the lot at the peak exits times of 3:30 p.m.-5 p.m., controlling the heavy flow onto Ackerman Road and the aggressive driving on the lot.

The shuttle drivers shouldn’t be placed in the undesired position of forcing the passengers in so tightly that book bags are slapped into faces and feet are firmly stepped on by heavy work boots.

All of us are forced into an unpleasant situation with the tight crowding of parking availability on campus. Students of any age should be respected for the dollars they spend to be at OSU, rather than dismissed and ignored, with more and more conveniences removed.

Rhonda Riley McGowanJunior in nursing