Collaboration sought to help balance parking costs, needs

Dear Editor:

The recent issue of Parking Cost News, a newsletter produced by the Academic Senate's Committee on Parking, raises important issues and a principle upon which we all can agree -- that parking program costs and the fees paid by faculty, staff and students for campus parking should be as low as possible. To that end, for example, the campus recently cut projected West Entry Parking Structure construction costs by just over $2 million.

What's not as clear is how to fairly and reasonably determine what's to be funded by parking revenues or which alternate campus budgets could instead be used.

For example, just as a new building requires steam pipes and electrical lines to function, so do parking lots and structures require roads and utilities to serve them. Some parking revenues have been used to assist with such roadway projects in the past, but the majority of funds will continue to come from other campus budgets. Determining the "fair share" cost to be assigned to the parking budget is our goal.

Non-parking revenue budgets, for example, will cover the majority of the total cost of Dairy Road improvements because the upgraded road will serve purposes besides the required environmental impact mitigation to accommodate traffic flowing into and out of the West Entry Parking Structure.

With state monies unable to be used and donors reluctant to underwrite transportation and parking costs, funding options are limited. Every dollar the campus shifts to support these services is a dollar that cannot be used to directly support academic programs. We very much welcome the committee's advice about how best to balance these competing campus needs.

-- Stan Nosek, Vice Chancellor for Administration