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| Campus parking
fees to increase 85 percent |
By
by James Nix
Editor-in-Chief |
 To
make up for revenue lost in a recent court case and the debt
on the newly built parking deck, Appalachian State University
raised parking permit fees to $204 for the 2003-04 academic
year.
The Board of Trustees approved the $94 increase in their June
6 meeting.
The fee for parking in the parking deck increased $4. A semester
pass for the deck will only cost $210.
The increase is due to the loss of approximately $600,000
in parking citations because of a recent court decision to
uphold a clause in the state constitution that mandates any
fines issued by a state agency must be turned over to the
county’s school board.
The Appalachian Parking and Traffic Committee proposed a plan
to charge faculty and staff one half of one percent of their
salary to park.
For example, faculty and staff members earning $20,000 a year
would pay $100 to park. Those earning $100 thousand a year
would pay $500 to park.
Former Student Government Association president Ryan Eller
said Friday to the BOT Business Affairs committee that SGA
supported the parking and traffic committee’s proposal
because it would be fair, mainly to the lower income employees
and students that have to park on campus.
Under this suggestion, students would pay a flat fee of $156
to park.
“[The parking and traffic committee] came up with this
because the felt it would be the most fair to everyone,”
said Rachel Johnson, the newly appointed Student Government
Association president.
Jane P. Helm, vice chancellor for business affairs, said the
payroll reduction method would not be fair in the sense people
would be paying different amounts of money for the same parking
spot.
The committee suggested the student fee because it was divisible
by 12 and would allow a student to buy a parking pass at any
point during the year, Johnson said.
For the Rivers Street Parking Deck, the committee recommended
a $4 increase.
Under the committee’s recommendation, evening passes
would cost $78, one-half of the student rate.
Also recommended was the addition of $1 to all event tickets
where people must park on campus.
Helm, said she feels taxing athletic and cultural affairs
events would hurt the programs.
“Basically you would be taxing the same people who are
already paying for the parking deck,” she said.
Dr. Paul Gates, chair of the Faculty Senate said he feels
there are other sources of income to be tapped before raising
the parking fee.
Not all parking expenses are incurred by faculty, staff and
students. Cultural events in Farthing Auditorium and athletic
events draw in large number of off-campus motorists.
“It seems to me these costs should be spread among everybody
who parks and not put just on faculty, staff and students,”
Gates said.
Parking should be factored in on the cost of putting on an
event, Gates said.
The only paid parking during athletic events is the parking
deck. Raley and Stadium lots are both available for free parking.
During home football games, Stadium parking lot is reserved
for Yosef Club members, but the Yosef Club does not pay the
university for the parking, Gates said.
Lower paid staff and some students will be hit hardest by
the increase, Gates said.
The state legislature is discussing a 1.81 percent raise for
all state employees, Gates said. A typical lower paid staff
position earns $20,000 a year. The 1.81 percent raise would
add $362 to their salary. The $94 parking fee increase equals
26 percent of that raise.
“Ninety-four bucks is about 26 percent of that,”
Gates said. “That’s a good chunk of a small raise.”
Gates said the Faculty Senate will explore other options next
year to help lower the fee.
“What I would like to see is the parking costs not remain
at this level,” Gates said. “I don’t think
they’ll have to if we get revenue from all sources.”
Gates said he sees no blame to be assigned to the administration,
however.
“We’re being caught between an adverse court decision
and the debt service on the new deck,” he said. “This
is just an unfortunate confluence of circumstances, but when
we are caught in this squeeze, we’ve got to look to all
possible sources of revenue.” |
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