Charles Streeter, chairperson of the Employee Forum, said the advisory committee has been reviewing a five-year parking plan since fall 2016 and the plan is now under review by the administration.
“Every five years there is a review of what is needed in order to continue to support the parking infrastructure and what needs to happen in regards to the fees that everyone pays for parking on campus, as well as the pay lots or the parking spaces where you have to pay,” Streeter said.
Streeter said he has not received much feedback from employees at this point, but he is aware of their main concerns.
“The delegates of the Employee Forum have been concerned about what is going to happen in regards to the increase in cost and how that is going to be leveraged in such a way that it is not the daytime permit holders who are continuing to burden the cost or even the people who use transportation during the day,” Streeter said.
Streeter said people get emotional about this subject and that for anyone, paying for parking is a considerable amount of money.
“It would be nice if it could be free, but the way it’s set up, we don’t have parking spaces and we have to pay for the infrastructure,” Streeter said. “So it is something that, you know, that is an expense that everyone has to shoulder.”
Lori Haight, a delegate on the Employee Forum, said she knows they are considering different models, one including paying for nighttime parking. She said employees are concerned about nighttime employees and employees who make less on the pay scale.
She said she feels the advisory committee is being sensitive to the different scenarios that everyone faces.
