By STAFF EDITORIAL
The parking situation on campus has gone from bad to worse.
Over the summer Butler tried to fix itsparking problem by giving it a makeover. The administration was trying to ease parking tensions but now the problem is worse than ever before.
In order to continue to grow the school, the city of Indianpolis ordered the university to add aditional parking, said Ben Hunter, the chief of staff.
In reality the school added 516 spots,but it wont seem that way to a large portion of the student body.
As a whole the university is adding a little more than 500 new spaces, but this is coming at a huge price to those who drive on campus.
Jacking up the prices and taking away spots on main campus is highway robbery. Most parking passes have jumped in price from $75 to $200.
When the school decided to impliment this plan making money may of not been their primary focus. But clearly student priorities were not a main focus either.
The new price hike comes down to simple laws of supply and demand, Hunter said. There is a deficit of parking spaces because everyone wants one. By increasing prices, fewer people will buy spaces.
If the prices are going to be raised, students should have the same amount of spaces they did last year, if not more. In the Residential College parking lot, there were 691 parking spots available to residential students. This year there are 529. The Apartment Village is losing 156 parking spots and they are being changed to commuter spots.
The university as a whole is gaining parking, spaces, but critical populations within the university are being affected negatively by reducing their spots.
Juniors and sophomores, the bulk of the population who lives in ResCo and AV, are also the bulk of students who drive on campus. They are losing the most spots.
Most of the additional parking spots that students will have access to are in ‘I’ Lot, located near the intramural fields. Those parking in the ‘I’ Lot will pay $75 but will not have the luxury of living close to where they park. If the administration is going to increase permit prices, students should be able to park near their residence and not across campus.
The school will provide transportation to and from the lot. Dawg Ride is a new service provided by the University.
This is Butler’s solution for transporting people all throughout campus, but it can be utilized to transport people to and from ‘I’ Lot.
Butler will also increase security on the lot. The university is adding manpower, five emergency phones, gates that will be activated by student IDs, cameras and lights. Still, all of this should not come at the expense of a reduction of spots for students on main campus.
The amounts of visitor parking and freshmen spaces have been increased on campus. If anything, visitor and freshmen parking should be strictly on ‘I’ Lot. These two groups can utilize the university transportation in order to get to main campus if individuals do not want to walk.
On many college campuses, freshmen are not allowed to have cars. With our current parking crisis, we should follow suit. Hunter said this is still an option.
Faculty and staff around Fairbanks will have fewer spots with the new plan.
The cons of the parking situation far outweigh the pros.
The school needs to find another solution that will effect fewer students.
As a whole, Butler has made parking worse by adding an additional 180 spots to freshmen and visitors and taking away 318 spots from ResCo and AV. They should force the freshmen and visitors to park in I lot.
‘I’ lot is currently not open yet, but is scheduled to be open on Saturday, Aug. 31, said Rich Michal, executive director of campus facilities.
