E-mail
Print
Loyalty Equals Brotherhood helps expand south-side parking options
Alleges SA is claiming credit for their accomplishments
By Carlo Albano
“I was approached by the LEB group and was impressed with their compassion for serving their community.” said University Relations and Communications Vice Chancellor Tom Luljak.
In the midst of a contentious student election, the fraternity Loyalty Equals Brotherhood (LEB) claims that the Students United for Change party has wrongfully assumed credit in the creation of new parking options on the South Side. The recent achievement of a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee ULot and concurrent Park and Ride near the Allen Bradley Clock Tower to serve the communities of the South Side of Milwaukee has been a goal of LEB in their work for a long time coming.
“We are working on maintaining and promoting this Park-N-Ride so that it will continue to run and bring more accessibility to the university for our South Side community, because the route and parking lot continues to be challenged.” said Fernando Orozco, President of LEB. “I am infuriated that after all of the work, I find a campaign flyer and an editorial that gives credit to SUFC for our work under their ‘transportation improvements’ for this year.”
However, SUFC contends that LEB has dramatized the situation and that there has been an equal amount of work put in between the two Student Association and student organization entities.
“Loyalty Equals Brotherhood is simply overreacting.” said AJ Piwarun of the SUFC senate. “LEB was mostly responsible for attaining the parking lot, but SUFC dealt with the administration behind the scenes to make it work.”
Regardless of the credentials, the South Side Park and Ride and ULot face several challenges, such as low user rates, while it remains in a “trial-run” status. LEB elaborates that the UWM administration must help on their end of the parking lot and bus route’s promotion as well as their continued commitment to the relevance for this transport addition.
“I was approached by the LEB group and was impressed with their compassion for serving their community.” said University Relations and Communications Vice Chancellor Tom Luljak. “They are terrific guys and have been excellent to work with. In terms of the Student Association, I am not too aware about any of the work they’ve done on this.”
Oscar Perez, UWM Neighborhood Relations Administrative Specialist, was assigned by Luljak to work on the campaign with LEB for a south side Park and Ride. Perez also contends that the work ethic of the members of LEB was one of compassion for their community.
“They performed a very grassroots approach, and I was with them when we went to the County Supervisor Peggy West.” said Perez. “I was with them at the meetings with officials of Rockwell Automotive, and I was also with them when they were collecting signatures sometimes in the community and on campus. Frankly, I am unaware of any SA representatives that have come into contact at all with the administration.”
The work of LEB has also been previously recognized by UWM publications such as UWM Today and the UWM Report as well as other local media such as the Spanish Journal.
The motivation to go through with this campaign came to LEB when they found that there were several other places outside of Milwaukee that UWM was serving in the area of transportation. They were cities that they were unfamiliar with and found to be further than the south side of Milwaukee. Community service is a cornerstone of LEB along with brotherhood, cultural awareness and loyalty, and so they decided to pursue this goal of transportation to further accessibility to neighbors.
“I was tired of taking 2 bus routes to school from my home community south of campus, and didn’t feel that it made any sense that myself or others should have to take that much time to get to a university that is here to serve us also.” said Edgar Mendez, treasurer of LEB.
The time chosen to begin their campaign would confront a rough time in the budget of the Milwaukee County Transportation System. Bus routes continue to be cut left and right, including other routes that bring students to UWM. Despite this, LEB decided to continue with their goal and began collecting signatures from UWM students and the South Side communities to petition for a route and parking lot for these Milwaukee residents.
However, the UWM fraternity was able to achieve a significant amount of signatures that would further an alliance with the administration and the county government to approve the public bus route and ULot. The group feels that they were involved with the administration more than the Student Association was.
“Through all the bureaucracy in attaining the Park and Ride, LEB was involved with specific vice chancellors and other entities that were required as well as MCTS officials.” said Orozco. “We were even present when the common council voted to approve the new bus route. Since our community advocacy venture was cost free that excluded us from ever dealing with SA.”
Loyalty Equals Brotherhood has yet to celebrate their victory as the route and ULot remain in a “trial run” status. They are concerned about the promotion and the user rates of the route if it is to be maintained for the following year, yet remain hopeful that South-Side students will pick up on this route as an opportunity to save gas and parking costs.
> Comments