The Alligator rendered an opinion that I feel most forward-thinking persons would find shortsighted and disagreeable.
The column "darted" the University of Miami for their new policy banning freshmen who live on campus from having cars. The Alligator evoked the imagined danger of these carless students being run down by Miami's motorists as the basis for "hurling an enormous…DART" at UM.
Not only that, but the Alligator erred in implying that the policy applied to the entire freshman class. Had the Alligator been more circumspect, I think readers would have encountered a passage that read more like this:
We at the Alligator bestow a green, green LAUREL on the University of Miami for their progressive policy that prohibits freshmen who live on campus from having cars. Such action reduces fossil fuel consumption, pollution and traffic congestion, while saving students money, promoting physical fitness and potentially allowing for the conversion of parking lots into needed university facilities. At the height of a global energy crisis and a domestic economic downturn, these are timely benefits indeed! The University of Florida, already a leader in campus sustainability would be wise to consider a similar policy.
