HOW DO OUR VOICES INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER?
Speaking generally, commuting to the University of Utah can be broken up into two groups: cars and public transport. There are a small amount of people who bike, walk, and carpool, but for the sake of the conversation, it can be considered a "bimodal" distribution. Despite this assumption of division between these two branches of people, that's not actually the division observed in our research that is the most impactful when it comes to the community, or otherwise known as the "Agora" of the issue. The divide we do see, is the polarization between the Board of Trustees/Commuter Services and the Student Body/Faculty. There is a general consensus amongst all commuters- Seniors, Freshmen, Professors, Drivers, People who take the Bus- that the U is not handling the situation properly, and moreover, "couldn't care less" what happens to students (whether that is true or not, isn't necessarily up to this analysis to decide). This divide affects the community on campus in a very interesting way. In reference to the Agora of ancient Greece, we can imagine a town center. The government pays for it to be built, and so charges you to enter. However, it also charges you to sit down on the grass and eat lunch. The community members are obviously upset, as there isn't a clear reason why they would have to be charged twice. They don't wan to be charged twice. But they might also not know the whole story. Maybe the government had a reason for charging for grass space. Neither side wants to consider the other, though. This is the split between Staff/Students and Commuter Services. It causes points of contention and mistrust, which can be beneficial for advocacy but detrimental for open discussion. This is the largest trend we see between all the voices contributing to this issue.
