No doubt about it, there’s a heck of a lot of cars that see NIU’s campus every day. One fact you can count on with this many cars passing to and fro is that a lot of them are in need of repair. This is especially true of the stereotypical student’s car, which often includes features such as plastic-wrap windows, a missing muffler and an engine on its last leg. It’s not surprising to see the occasional car pulled over, hood up, with a frustrated student beating the fender and kicking tires, evidently hoping their curses will solve the problem. Unfortunately, they won’t.

What does happen is a $100 tow truck ride and a visit to a local garage where, upon hearing the repair estimate, the student will decide to buy a bicycle.

Yes, it might be a tad stereotypical to say all garages are unfair in their pricing. Some are fair, or at least as fair as you could hope for. The fact remains that any extensive repair will be expensive and include an inconvenient tow, placing financial burden on, generally, an already a cash-strapped student.

What if there was another option? Imagine your car breaks down on Lucinda Avenue. It’s beyond your knowledge what is wrong and how to fix it, so you call a number given to you at the beginning of the school year. Five minutes later, a tow truck pulls up with “Northern Illinois University” painted on the side. Your car is towed to a garage on campus that is run by university employees and students who understand your situation. When the repair is complete, the bill is much less than it would have been from a private business, and you have the option of adding it to your school payment.

A Student Association- or university-run garage, such as the one I just described, would be a huge help to students in these types of situations. It could offer advantages such as a free tow from anywhere on campus and reduced bills.

Obviously, an obstacle to overcome would be how this service would be funded. First, students utilizing this service would still have to pay for it. Perhaps the bill could cover parts alone, greatly reducing the student’s burden, as labor drives up repair costs the most.

This would leave the garage with the responsibility of covering labor, which might not be as hard as it first seems. There are many students who know a thing or two about automobiles and would likely be willing to volunteer to work in the garage, or, at the very least, to receive lower wages than a full-time employee. Only one or two full-time, certified mechanics would be required to run the garage, acting as overseers and doing the more complicated repair work.

Despite the capital that would be needed to start such a service, a garage would cost the SA or NIU little money in the long run. It’d require work, money and foresight, but such a service would certainly be welcomed by students.