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As the spring semester begins, University of Louisville students may have many resolutions they would like to fulfill: make better grades, lose weight or finally turn in a graduate or law school application.

But maybe U of L should decide to use the beginning of a new year as a diving board for possibilities and make some New Year’s resolutions of their own.

Below are some proposed resolutions for the University of Louisville:

President Dr. James R. Ramsey, Director of Athletics Tom Jurich and head men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino should resolve to donate part of their salaries to fund a great U of L cause: a new parking garage. According to public documents, Ramsey makes over $450,000 a year. With Pitino at around $2.25 million and Jurich making $408,000 a year, a few thousand off the top of each salary would make for a hefty pension with which to build a severely needed garage.

U of L’s Counseling and Student Health Center should resolve to agree to give free samples of Nicorette Cinnamon Surge gum to assist in Provost Shirley Willihnganz’s goal of a campus-wide smoking ban. “I receive regular complaints about smoking in front of building entrances, creating a haze others have to walk through,” Willihnganz said. “It smells bad and litters our campus with ashes and butts.”

Officials could resolve to chisel down the Confederate statue and use the pebbles and debris to beautify the Belknap campus. After many students turned out to protest the statue celebrating the Confederate dead, many students believe that it would be better used as gravel to pave a new parking lot.

The U of L bookstore could resolve to give out galoshes and ponchos to students, faculty and staff when it rains since the Belknap drainage system is so inadequate. One can harken back to the flood of 2006 when Floyd Street became Floyd River and the University of Louisville may as well have been Venice.

Library officials should resolve to set time limits on how long a student can be on Facebook in Ekstrom library computer labs. There are more important things than poking people and adding the newest widget.

The Planning, Design and Construction department could resolve to tear down the Crawford gym so the Belknap Research Center can get a better looking building as a neighbor. The university paid approximately $41.4 million and eradicated a parking lot for the building; it is only fair that it should have something nice to look at, too.

State officials should resolve to allocate funds to renovate Miller Hall, so the campus can be completely rid of any pests. Ex-Governor Ernie Fletcher balked during the convening of the House of Representatives, which adjourned immediately, saying the items on the special session agenda, including funding to renovate Miller Hall, could wait until the January 2008 regular session. It would be interesting to see those officials taking residence in a building that has barely been touched since its erection in 1964.

And Steve Kragthorpe could resolve to win enough games this fall to be invited to a bowl. The Cardinals missed out on a bowl game for only the second time in the past eight years.