Nathan Young ’20 LABB Intern– Change very rarely brings about excitement around Wabash. We are a school built on traditions that define who we are Wabash men. Parking, however, is one tradition that we at Wabash are becoming more and more difficult to sustain without great frustration. With the development of new housing on the west side of campus, i.e. Rogge and Williams Halls, there is an increased need for a change to the current parking “policy.” Our current policy campus parking is an egalitarian system or free-for-all which follows the principle set forward by our Gentlemen’s Rule. This allows for any student, faculty, or staff member to park in any parking lot spot as they choose within reason of course.

As a result of a growing frustration and a goal of expanding the student body, my consulting group (Gabriel Anguiano ‘20, Zach Hogan ‘21, Charlie LeBlanc ‘21, and myself) set out to help ease the stresses of parking throughout the campus. Despite the large amount of time and effort done across the summer, our most valuable experience came in our practice presentation to the other LABB groups. By practicing our pitch to them, they asked critical questions that will allow us to hone our argument to our target audience and how we can pitch the idea as effectively as possible.

Overall, the opportunity to present our idea on the best approach to parking on our campus gave us insight into how many different parties affected by one policy. By using the LEAN model and help from Wayne Bewley ‘85, our group created an approach that attempts to utilize our existing parking infrastructure to its fullest capacity and minimizing additional spending. Presenting this idea clearly to our audience is crucial. Each person in the room will each have a different perception of the parking on campus and we needed to convince our audience that our proposed approach is the best method of improving parking on campus. Most importantly, we presented a vision of how parking can change from being a nuisance and struggle to being simple and easy as possible.