So the administration of the college has a new suggestion incentive program: offer up suggestions for cost savings or revenue generation or education quality enhancements and win a designated parking space for a week. So I suggested maybe we could train the educators to turn off the floyding lights in the gym when they're done using it, thereby saving the cost of burning 32,000 watts(!) of lights when the gym sits empty and unused.

This was the first week of the contest, and maybe I was their only entry, because I won! Note the following emails, in chronological order, from the Administrative Assistant to the President(!) to me(!), followed by the Parking Services Director's reply (names X'd out to protect the clueless and the good parts highlighted to make them funnier):

From: Lori xxxxxxx [mailto:xxxxxxx@lcc.edu]
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2009 4:20 PM
To: Eric xxxxxx; Kimberly xxxxx; Mark Wolfgang
Subject: 1-week designated parking space

Hello All,

Mark was this week’s lucky winner of a one-week parking space via the Vision Initiative IdeaLab. Can Mark contact you to make arrangements?

Thank you.

Lori

Lori xxxxxxx
Administrative Assistant to the President
Lansing Community College
Administration Building, room 300

From Eric xxxxx
Sent Fri 3/6/2009 4:48 PM
To Lori xxxxx ; Kimberly xxxxxx ; Mark Wolfgang
Subject RE: 1-week designated parking space

Hi Lori,

Kim and I were not aware that a parking space was going to be given away, as no one consulted us. So we are not currently prepared to reserve a parking space for this Monday. We can have a temporary sign made by Ernie, while we are having a permanent sign made.

Kim, can you have Eric A. take care of the signs as well as the base and pole.

Mark, you can contact Kim to make arrangements. Parking & ID Services will need vehicle info, so this can be passed on to Police & Public Safety in case any enforcement action needs to be taken on other vehicles that may park in the reserved space.

Thanks,

Eric

Go ahead, make me work for it.... On the whole, I'd rather pass up the parking space and just make fun of everyone involved.