Bob Knight, assistant vice chancellor for finance and administration, was appointed chairman at the TPAC's last meeting, held Dec. 12. He has been at UNC for seven months and works on special projects with Nancy Suttenfield, vice chancellor for finance and administration.
Linda Carl, TPAC's former chairwoman, said she resigned because she is too busy to occupy the role, but she will remain a committee member.
Before break, the committee began discussing the possibility of charging for parking on campus during the evenings. But the issue of night parking was left up in the air while students were taking exams and were away from campus on Winter Break.
The last meetings of the semester were devoted to educating the committee about TPAC's main issues, including night parking and the elimination of on-campus parking for students living in residence halls. Both topics will be discussed further in a series of open hearings later this month.
A fee for parking on campus after 5 p.m. has been suggested by committee members as a possible source of funding for the University's transportation department.
The committee is looking for a way to fund several projects including the new fare-free busing, expansion of the Park and Ride lot and the construction of a new PR lot.
Knight first got a taste for these issues at the Dec. 12 meeting, which included informational presentations about residential student parking, the allocation system for parking permits and nighttime parking. Later this month, the committee will discuss recommendations on these issues that it will present to the Board of Trustees at their meeting March 28.
Knight said Cheryl Stout, assistant director of parking services for the Division of Public Safety, is working on a thorough presentation about night parking. Knight said the information is too complex to be presented simply, so it might go on a Web site to give students access to it.
Knight said the goal for the semester is for voices to be heard, especially from students, about issues concerning parking. He also said TPAC plans to add one more student, one more faculty member and one more staff member to its committee to increase input.
