4a
Opinion
Monday, August 21, 2000
For comments, contact Ben Embry or Emily Hughey at 864-4924 or e-mail opinion@kansan.com
Editorial board: Students pay, but Parking doesn't deliver
Meters steal promised student spaces
Owning a car always is expensive — especially if you plan to park yours in one of the lots at the University of Kansas.
When permit fees increased in 1997, students and faculty were promised 2,000 new parking spots by this year. And more than 2,000 spots have been created. But a significant percentage of those are metered or for visitors — not spots students and faculty are likely to use.
To be sure, it's not easy to run the parking department. As a self-supporting entity, the department has the difficult task of raising money to provide more spaces, keep permit fees affordable and fine parking offenders in a just manner.
Responding to increasingly disgruntled student drivers, Chancellor Robert Hemenway unveiled a campus access plan in 1997 to bring 2,000 new parking spaces to the University. He planned to pay for those spaces by raising permit and meter fees and parking fines. Those increases went into effect in fall 1997.
Three years later, we have those 2,000 new spaces. Park and Ride now has room for 750 cars in the Lied Center parking lot. The lot south of Robinson has expanded slightly to the east. And the lot east of Memorial Stadium will have more than 200 new spaces, as the meters that once blanketed the outskirts of the lot have been removed.
The new $7.5 million parking garage on Mississippi Street, with 818 spaces, accounted for the lion's share of Hemenway's goal. But the meters that were pulled out of the Memorial Stadium lot made the short trip across the street to the new parking garage. More than half of the new garage — 500 spaces — will be metered; about 200 are set aside for students, and about 100 are designated for faculty and staff.
To recap: Students, faculty and staff are paying higher rates to park on campus, with greater chances of finding a space. But our money also went toward more meters — which visitors often use, not the people who learn, teach or work at the University.
Since the 1997 increase in permit fees, rates have remained constant. Compared to the other Big 12 institutions, the University's rates for permits and fines put KU at about the middle.
That will change. Donna Hultine, assistant parking director, said the rates would probably go up in the
next academic year
Did the chancellor's plan actually provide more access to campus? Sure. But the people who paid to get that access won't see all of the benefits. Good intentions manifested themselves in the wrong way.
Parking department: Students get their money's worth
The next time Hemenway or the parking department comes up with a grand vision to alleviate our parking wees, we — the ones whose wallets get lighter — should at least get what we're paying for.
Department fulfills its pledge of 2,000 spots
Chris Borniger for the editorial board
Did you know that the parking department at the University of Kansas is self-supporting? Though we are a state agency and we follow all state guidelines, we are mandated legislatively to generate our own income through user fees. These fees include parking permits, tickets, meter and garage fees and events. Parking rules and fees are set through a lengthy process that begins with a Parking Board made up of faculty, staff and students, and ends with the Chancellor.
Increases in parking rates happen only when there is budgetary need, much as with housing increases. It is not this department's mission to make a profit. The income generated by user fees goes toward parking lot maintenance and lighting, snow removal, staffing and equipment to name a lew. increases In rates are spread to all users so some years there have been permit price increases and some years there have been parking ticket increases. In the 19 years that I've been with the parking department, permit prices have changed from 5 to 7 times (depending on the type of permit). In 1984, permit prices were actually decreased because the department had a larger carry forward balance than was necessary.
In 1997, after reviewing recommendations from the Parking Board. University Council, and public responses and recommendations
of an Ad Hoc Committee on Campus access, Chancellor
remenway made some tough decisions about improvements to campus parking.
At that time, the Chancellor reminded the campus community that rates had not been increased since 1993, and that an increase was necessary to create more spaces so supply could meet demand. The Chancellor approved across the board permit and fine increases, but also promised 2000 new spaces by the year 2000. The Chancellor said the allocation of additional spaces created by this work would be intended to primarily benefit students; however, it also would serve to decrease the parking congestion throughout the campus.
So the parking department was tasked with reconfiguring and repairing existing surface parking lots and was given permission to proceed with plans to build a new parking facility north of the Kansas Union. The result is 2,246 new parking spaces since 1997. Of these, 1,168 are in student parking lots with another 100 coming next summer, and 479 of the new spaces are designated for faculty and staff use. Of the remaining 599 spaces, 99 are used by the KU Visitor Center. Visitors park in the lot and are shuttled to locations around the campus. Though these spaces might not directly benefit faculty, staff and students, they do take pressure off faculty, staff and student spaces in the heart of campus.
Finally, 500 spaces in the new parking facility north of the Union are provided for anyone who desires to use them and can be purchased by the hour. The money generated by these hourly spaces will help to pay off the bond that built the garage, again taking pressure off of faculty, staff and students. These are spaces that will be used by visitors, but they also are spaces that any faculty, staff or student could use if they choose. Providing these spaces also will take the pressure off of student permit lots near the stadium where visitors used to park before the garage was an option. Additionally, once the garage was opened, 231 metered parking spaces were removed from the student parking lots by the Union, returning these spaces back to students with yellow permits.
The Chancellor's requested permit price increase amounts to about $2 a month for faculty, staff and students. Even though not all of the new spaces were
Donna Hultine for the parking department
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No one really knows what my job at the Kansan is yet. That is, we've never had a reader's representative before, and we're not yet sure what to do with one.
You bothered to pick up a newspaper today,
and that's a start. But what do you read when
and that you pick up the paper? The sports scores? The horoscopes? The scoop from Student Senate and city commission meetings?
OK, I won't fool myself.
As a former Student Senate reporter, I know that most students don't search the paper frantically for those kinds of stories.
So what do you read, and why? What would it take to get you to read a story about the city commission or Student Senate?
I will meet with groups and people from many sides of campus this semester to
Erin R.
Barcomb
readers'
representative
readersearch.kursan.com
try to answer those questions. As a staff, we've looked at several areas of the paper in which we need to improve.
Diversity of all sorts has long been a concern of the staff and of our readers. Although we make a concerted effort to diversify cover
age and sources in the paper, including having a multicultural reporter, we realize that we often fall short of our goal. That's why we need students from all backgrounds and lifestyles to tell us where and when we're missing the mark.
Our coverage of diversity and cultural issues often scratches the surface. We cover Step Shows and Pride Week. But how often do we talk about issues affecting race, religion, sexuality and living arrangements? Probably not as often as we should.
Although our staff includes students, traditional and non-traditional, who live on and off campus and come from various backgrounds and upbringing, the fact is that we can't always see things they way you do.
We want to.
And because you may not always see things from our point of view, I invite you to ask questions of me.
You can ask me, "Why does sports have an entire section to itself?" Or, "Why did a story about a Britney Spears rumor appear on the front page when a story about a greek fundraiser got buried in the middle?"
If you don't like what you're reading, we're
They're fair questions, and hope my involvement will get more of those questions answered. If you have suggestions for the Kansan, it's my job to lobby the staff to make changes.
More information
This column and the point/counterpoint editorials above will be regular features on the Wednesday opinion page. Look for new features on the opinion page other days during the week.
not doing our job.
I'm also here to field complaints. I can offer you an explanation and propose a solution.
Or, if you just want to let off some steam at the *Kansan*. I'm here for that, too.
Most importantly, I want you to feel that the Kansan is accessible to you. There are ways to get your voice heard in the Kansan, and I hope be one vehicle to do that. We keep weird hours, squeezing our newspaper work between classes and other responsibilities, but don't let that stop you from trying to reach us.
This is your chance to influence the Kansan and shape my role on the staff.
Do you have a story idea? Suggestion?
Critique? Let me know what's on your mind.
Give me a call at 864-4810, e-mail me at readersep@kansan.com, or stop by the newsroom at 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall sometime.
Tell us what you want to see in your student newspaper. After all, we want you to pick up the next issue, too.
Barcomb is a Wichita senior in journalism.
864-0500 864-0500 Free for All is the phone line created this fall to enhance interaction between the Kansan and its readers and to provide a forum for student voices. Readers are invited to call in and leave a 20 second voice mail message about anything they choose, from campus issues to personal gripes. Slanderous or incoherent messages will not be printed. Other messages may not be printed because of space constraints. The Kansan reserves the right to edit or reject any submission.
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The University Daily Kansan
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Erin Dean,
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Editorial board Katie Hackett
Kate Hazelwood
Joe Jarvis,
Tim Lang,
Andy Miner,
Brett Norman,
Eric Ohlsen,
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Ben Tatar,
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Columnists Karen Boyd,
Warisa Chulindra,
Ramona DeNies,
Jeff Engstrom,
Cassio Furtado,
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Rupali Limaye,
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Josh Dysart,
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