In order to complete the parking structure for Matthew Knight Arena, the University tapped into money the Department of Public Safety had collected from all drivers who paid tickets and bought permits for campus parking. In effect, the University is taking from the rest of us to build something few of us will use.
The University made a questionable financial decision receiving the bond to build the parking structure for the arena and then deciding to put that burden of debt on DPS.
Before it was charged with covering the underground arena structure, DPS was considering three new lots around campus that would have added 514 parking spaces. For that project, funding would have come from the money DPS had saved up from parking tickets, passes and meters. It was a logical plan: using money collected from drivers to increase parking for all drivers.
But rather than increasing general parking when enrollment is at an all-time high and the need of parking is widespread, to start repayment on the bond, DPS used the pool of money campus drivers had spent years accumulating to build a structure that fewer people will benefit from. It also comes at three times the cost of an above-ground parking structure.
Now, to pay for the arena structure, DPS is increasing the cost of faculty parking for next year and stepping up its efforts to enforce meters and fine people. Drivers who paid into the fund will not reap the benefits, while current and future drivers will have to pay more for the limited parking that already exists. DPS will gain revenue when arena events require use of the garage. But revenue won’t start accumulating until 2011, and DPS has to start paying for the structure now.
What’s more, more than a third of the 377 spots in the arena parking structure are reserved for users of the Jaqua Academic Center for Student-Athletes.
DPS paying for the arena structure bond in this way is a disservice to those who spent and continue to spend years paying parking fines, buying parking passes and feeding the ever-hungry meters, as little will improve for them. Instead of 514 new parking spaces, the campus community has been relegated to only 242 spaces, which won’t be enough as enrollment continues to increase.
To make matters worse, there are other factors that will decrease parking on campus: Lot 16, near the Knight Library, will be closed after midnight. The parking lot behind the Knight Law Center, which is currently the largest lot available for student use, is the planned spot for a new residence hall. Drivers who get used to parking in the arena structure will have to find other spaces during times when there is an event.
The University had an opportunity to increase the quality of life on campus for everyone while demonstrating sound fiscal management by spending the DPS funding on parking for all students. The money came from campus drivers, and the University should have spent it on something beneficial to all campus drivers, not just a few.
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Arena lot funding poorly planned
Daily Emerald
April 26, 2010
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