More Parking Changes Possible

The Student Life section of Utah State Today highlights work written by the talented student journalists at Utah State University. Each week, the editor selects a story that has been published in The Utah Statesman or the Hard News Café, or both, for inclusion in Utah State Today.

 

 

by Stephanie Blatchford in The Utah Statesman, Friday, March 12, 2010

 

Students who are used to parking near the TSC may find themselves hiking across campus if Dave Cowly, vice president of finance, approves the Parking Advisory Committee’s proposal that passed by a vote of 6-4 at its last meeting.

 

The Parking Advisory Committee passed a proposal to make the B Premium parking lot, adjacent to the University Inn, faculty parking. The lot directly north of the Caine Wanless Russell Performance Hall [Manon Caine Russell Kathryn Caine Wanlass Performance Hall]  would be made a blue student parking lot.

 

Chief Steve Mecham of USU Police said the number of cars that enter and exit the B Premium and Big Blue Terrace Parking lots as well as the number of pedestrians who cross these areas creates a potential risk, which will be reduced with this proposal.

 

“The Blue Premium lot is a high-turn around lot. Every class break there are a lot of cars. Moving that lot further to the east and making that an untimed lot should reduce the number of vehicles in the area during class breaks,” he said.

 

Assistant director for parking and transportation James Nye said there will be 15 more parking spaces in the Orange lot that would be changed to Blue student parking. Almost 1,000 vehicles a day pass in and out of the Blue Premium lot near the TSC, and the terrace each day, sometimes it takes students 20 minutes to get out of the lot.

 

Nye said, “Can you imagine being a guest at the University Inn or TSC and trying to get there, who would want to stay there?”

 

ASUSU Student Advocate Tyler Haws, part of the Parking Advisory Committee, said the purpose of the committee is to advise and suggest ways to fix parking problems at USU. Haws conducted an online survey to see how students felt about the parking proposal in order to represent the student body with his vote. Students already felt like there was inadequate parking on the west side of campus, Haws said. In a week and a half, 309 students responded, and 283 students out of 309 felt these proposals would negatively impact the usage of the TSC, Fieldhouse and HPER.

 

“I understand where parking was coming from with their proposals, but as a student advocate, I represent the students, and the vast majority of students didn’t want either proposal to pass,” he said.

 

The two-hour parking is one of the main factors contributing to the congestion on the west side of campus, and faculty and staff usually come in to work all day. Changing this parking to a faculty lot will relieve the congestion in the center of campus, and students can take alternative routes to the other lot that will save them time, Nye said.

 

He said, “I think most people will realize that once orange becomes blue, the traffic patterns will change.”

 

ASUSU Executive Vice President Spencer Lee said he voted against the proposal during the committee meeting. There have been many negative phone calls and reactions from students, Lee said, and he thinks the proposal is about money, not student safety.

 

“I do not feel that the Parking Advisory Committee acted with the students best interest in mind,” Lee said. “I feel that the bills being proposed were looking only at a budget.”

 

The second proposal referred to by Haws and Lee would have made the Big Blue Terrace 24-hour paid parking. The proposal was voted down 5-4.