XAT 2017 — Decision Making Question 9
Analyse the following caselet and answer the question that follows:
A college campus with a population of around 2,000 of whom 200 were children, 1,200 people between 15 and 45 years, 500 people between 45 and 65 and around 100 people more than 65 years of age. The campus has two big gates opening out to the city. There are 400 cars and 500 motorbikes inside the campus. The residents relied on these vehicles to visit the city located 10 kilometres away.
Now, with land within the campus becoming scarce, the chief administrator (CA) found the growing demand for parking lot difficult to handle. The faculty, staff and students wanted increased parking space. In the past six years, the parking requirement on campus had doubled. The CA found it inappropriate to construct parking lots from the students’ fee, even though those with vehicles may not complain about it.
Besides creating parking problems, the CA felt that these vehicles added to the pollution and made residents less responsible toward each other. The risk to the children and the elderly because of over-speeding was menacing. Therefore, the CA wanted to reduce the number of vehicles in the campus. Many faculty members, students and staff members, however, felt that demand for more parking space was natural as vehicles were required to go to the market, railway station, airport, and inter-state bus terminal all located in the city. They also told the CA that the elderly, sick and the toddlers relied only on these vehicles.
After listening to all stakeholders, the CA wanted to solve these problems while ensuring the campus remained responsible and green.
Which of the following actions would best satisfy all the stakeholders within the campus?
Answer & solution
- A
Levy extra fee on students to construct additional parking lots inside the campus. Students should pay for up-keep of the campus.
Let all vehicles be parked in a college-managed space outside the campus while two battery operated vehicles handle exigencies inside the campus.
- C
Bring all stakeholders to the discussion table.
- D
To reduce carbon footprints, only pooled vehicles should be allowed to operate inside the campus.
- E
Charge significant fee from any vehicle entering or leaving the campus.
Option 1 is not possible because it is unfair to the students as mentioned in the case. Option 3 is not a solution as it talks only about discussions and not a decision. It can be a good initial point but not a concrete way to solve the problem.
Option 4 is not the best solution as it does not address the concern of parking lot and emergencies. Further 4 is an inferior option in comparison to Option 2 even with respect to pollution control. Option 5 does not solve the problem as it does not address concerns of parking lot. Further, Option 5 is inferior in comparison to Option 2 with respect to pollution control. Option 2 is the best solution as it addresses parking as well as other issues including those related to environment.
Hence, the correct answer is option 2.