Dear Editor:

In addition to being an Alumna of IU Southeast, I have also been a member of the IUS Credit Union for more than six years.

Since the construction in University Center has completely closed off backdoor access to the bank, those of using the bank for our few minutes of business have been parking with our hazard lights on in the semi-circle in front of the building.

We are, I’m sure, not the only ones.

However, today I had an unpleasant run-in with your new police chief, Dennis Simon.

I was unaware that he had summarily decided to honor that so-called emergency zone and was confronting people who parked there.

I parked there today per my usual routine for a 3-minute trip to the bank.

Before I had even closed my door his cruiser was beside me and he was honking ferociously to get my attention. He barked that I couldn’t park there. I inquired why. He said I just couldn’t.

This is going to be an absolute disaster. I am a 37-year-old professional, and I was offended by his manner and his refusal to give me the reason I couldn’t park there after I had been parking there for banking purposes for over three years.

How on earth do you think college kids are going to respond to this kind of irresponsible display of authoritarianism?

I later found out by visiting the police station that the reason for the change is because that is a fire lane.

All your new chief had to do was say something along the lines of how he was sorry if I was used to parking there, but he was new and he wanted to make sure he preserved the fire lane for safety purposes.

He didn’t, and the situation deteriorated, demonstrating something is lacking in his communication skills.

I hope you and others in charge are paying attention to that.

Furthermore, a campus wide announcement after the semester commences would have been the appropriate way to handle this situation, instead of barking at people one at a time.

Fliers, an announcement in the school paper and other methods of mass communication should have been employed to make people aware of the situation, and to give them a fair chance to change their habitual behavior.

Quite frankly, I expected a much higher level of service from IUS Police, as well as IU Southeast in general, and I am disappointed. Today it was a minor inconvenience to go to a parking metered spot, but that will not be the case once the fall semester begins, as I’m sure you are aware.

Will those of us there to bank for a few minutes be required to park on the other side of the library to meet the new chief’s new demands?

And how inconvenient will that be for handicapped bank patrons? What about elderly patrons in this August heat?

I think it’s incumbent upon the university, since it continues to cut off all easy access to the bank, to do something to correct this situation.

Until it does, I think it needs to stop enforcing this ridiculous policy, or at least go through the proper steps before doing so.

Sincerely,Anna Belle Pfau

Editor’s Note: Police Chief Dennis Simon is a long-standing member of the IUS Police department.