With the Olympics just a few months away, the metaphorical storm clouds are beginning to gather over the University of Utah. And, thanks to the short-sighted planning of U officials, the already drenching rains of Olympic hassle just turned into a catastrophic monsoon.

In a joint effort to allay the valid fears of student commuters, the U, in conjunction with Olympic organizers, produced a shiny brochure titled “2002 Campus Commuter Survival Guide.” The brochure, distributed across campus in early September, included a blueprint of available parking during and after the Games.

Unfortunately, the map in the brochure lied. A parking area labeled “Mount Olivet Temporary Parking December 2001-March 2002” had yet to be approved by the City Council. U officials failed to inform area residents that their natural, collective backyard might be converted to a slab of cement.

Their circumvention efforts failed miserably at the Oct. 16 City Council meeting, where members declared that U administrators had not satisfied public notice laws. The Council agreed to hear the U’s pleas again in November. Utah’s weather won’t allow construction that late in the season.

Because of their ill-planned aspirations, U officials had to drop the project?They are up a creek and they know it. Without the cemetery parking lot?located off the south end of campus?1,300 commuting U students will have no reasonable place to park.

U officials were arrogant in their actions. They made the erroneous assumption that the city government works just like the Board of Trustees?where members nod their heads in unison to almost every proposal.

In essence, U officials were only playing their part in the tradition of Olympic scandals.

They didn’t play by the rules, and now students will suffer. Admittedly, planning one of the largest peace-time gatherings in the world is not an easy task. However, U officials have had more than five years to strategize for February.

Instead, it appears as if they have been goofing off. They haven’t done their homework or, more appropriately, they’ve been trying to cheat. Their detention is the mad scramble they are currently in?an effort that will not erase their obvious past blunders.