I hope you will pass along the sincerest of apologies to the campus community for my recent illegal crossing of Green Street. I know several of my fellow members of the community have received citations for this same offense. For many of them, I am certain the punishment was both punitive and preventative as they paid for the ticket out of their food funds, and therefore will have less energy to repeat the offense. I am glad our protectors chose this opportunity to help prevent automobile-pedestrian confrontations rather than wasting time cracking down on driving offenses. After all, a pedestrian can do significant damage to an automobile or a MTD bus. The MTD has taken measures to raise the awareness of inattentive pedestrians with its “Look up, Listen up, Live up” campaign, and most would agree that this is an effective strategy. But I believe that campus police have got this one right. I am just glad that they are paying close attention to this issue instead of patrolling outlying areas that have recently seen an increase in armed robberies as a recent letter from the University warned about. Otherwise these offenses would have gone virtually unnoticed. Perhaps the revenue generated from these fines will be put to good use planting flower beds that will be torn up mid-season and replaced. Again, please accept my sincerest apologies for my blatant disregard for pedestrian traffic laws and neglect for the rights of motorists.

Jay Walker

University Employee