You overslept. Panicked and rushed thoughts race through your mind to a) brush your teeth b) grab your bag c) put on an extra layer and d) run! If you live on campus, your mad dash might leave you sweaty, but at least you'll make it to class on time. But if you're a commuter, then you're out of luck.Students here probably assume their classmates live somewhere on or near campus. For them, "commuter" is a unfamiliar word more common to city colleges with no campuses, but less heard-of at schools like Brandeis-which actually has about 15 percent of undergraduates not living in the immediate area. The University does dedicate resources to commuter and transfer students during orientation. This is an important step, but there are some complications that need to be addressed.

As a commuter, I was assigned a parking pass to Theater lot. When I arrive each morning, leaving plenty of time to get to my noon class, the parking lot is packed. There's often a Brandeis police officer placing tickets on unregistered vehicles, but that doesn't clear parking spaces. Sometimes the vulture swoop for an empty spot takes as long as 15 minutes and includes the embarrassing 5-mph drive, following someone presumably walking to a parking spot. If commuters were assigned T-lot, and the University has counted the number of passes given, then why does parking take almost more time than the actual commute?

During orientation this year there was a program for commuting students, but the first days of orientation as a whole were geared toward settling into dorm rooms. They included how to install phone lines, install micro-fridges and sign up for meal plans-aspects of college life commuters don't share. Although it makes sense to pay more attention to what the majority of students are doing, it leaves the rest of us feeling more detached in an environment that should be a community.

Students commute for various reasons, from saving money to off-campus responsibilities. But does Brandeis do a good enough job reaching out to commuters? The answer is twofold. The social life here is inclusive; weekly announcements from the Student Union keep every Brandeisian equally informed. But underlying these activities is the assumption that their participants all live on campus. Commuters, as far as most students are concerned, don't even exist.

One way to remedy such assumptions would be to better organize commuter students during orientation. Some commuters arrived here at 9 p.m. their first day, but had not been previously told that orientation activities, aside from moving in, began in the afternoon. Entering college is overwhelming enough without feeling ignored from the very first day.

Fixing the parking system would also help. With tuition on the rise and gas prices always unpredictable, receiving a ticket because I parked in the almost-always-empty South Residence lot instead of T-lot is very inconvenient and obnoxious-especially because when T-lot is full, there's nowhere else to go. I don't mind the laborious walk up the stairs to T-lot, but receiving a ticket makes no sense if assigning parking spots doesn't work. And leaving this problem unfixed-as it has been for several years-makes commuters' problems seem even more unimportant to the University.

Commuting to Brandeis has its complications, but also its perks. It makes being social very difficult, but it allows a more disciplined work ethic by lessening the temptations of campus activities. Even though I have my reasons for not living on campus my first year here, some colleges remedy commuter dilemmas by enforcing freshman dorming-I'm grateful Brandeis does not. Looking at the construction around campus, it's clear the administration is trying to make Brandeis a better place for everyone; I just wish it would keep commuting students in mind as they do so.