Friday, January 30, 2009
On game nights, 2,343 of the closest parking spots to Allen Fieldhouse are reserved for Williams Fund donors and other paying basketball fans.
Michael Gillaspie, Ashland senior and student body vice president, said parking was making things complicated for students. He said athletic events and the people who come to them often force students to park far from campus.
“Students are first and foremost the priority,” Gillaspie said. “Why not make it more convenient for students instead of making it more convenient for game-day people?”
Donna Hultine, director of the KU Parking Department, said she had discussed freeing up game-day parking spots for students with Student Senate in the past. Previous efforts failed because no one was willing to pay the cost, Hultine said. As the department and Senate work toward a solution, Hultine said the fear of losing money would likely continue to be a factor for everyone involved.
“My position is everything that I have here, I have as a revenue generator,” Hultine said. “So, with being able to generate $1 million from basketball games, we were able to hold permit prices down.”
Last semester, Senate proposed that any student should be able to park in the Kansas Union parking garage on game nights for free after 5 p.m. Because the department is still paying for the costs of building the garage, Senate withdrew the proposal.
Hultine said if the proposal had passed it would have been too much to handle for the department’s budget.
“Every year there is a little less conflict,” Hultine said. “But I’m not willing to change something to free when I still have bonds and am paying off the garage each year.”
Hultine and Gillaspie discussed a discounted nighttime parking permit, which would allow students to park in a well-lit garage for a cheaper price than other student permits. While the idea wasn’t officially nixed, Gillaspie said he didn’t think students would advocate spending money on a pass that would only be useful on a handful of game nights.
“Students would only have to pay if they want to park on campus on game nights,” Gillaspie said. “That minimal number of uses wouldn’t really justify a parking pass, so we weren’t necessarily sold on the nighttime pass.”
Gillaspie said for now, walking was probably the best option for students who needed to get around on campus during games.
Alex Tretbar, Wichita freshman, said he agreed with Gillaspie’s advice. Tretbar said although he was annoyed at the inconvenience of game-day parking, he would just continue to grit his teeth and walk.
“Whenever there’s a game day, I don’t even bother looking for a spot on campus,” Tretbar said. “Usually I’ll have to find a random parking spot a long ways away and just have to walk.”
Hultine said she understood why students would be upset with game-day parking, but said the bus system and Park and Ride were the cheapest alternatives to walking. Hultine said students should know that higher forces than the parking department were at work if students need to drive to the library or the residence halls.
“It’s so counterintuitive, we’re here to go to school, not just watch basketball,” Hultine said. “But I’ve always said trying to stop basketball parking is like trying to push the tide away from the shore.”
Gillaspie said Senate would continue to work to find the cheapest way to give students more campus parking spots on game day. He said Senate was currently looking at areas around the University Career Center and Watkins Memorial Health Center for student-only game-day lots.
Gillaspie said he didn’t know what would happen.
— — Edited By Sam Speer
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Game-day parking: an ongoing problem
One could start fixing the problem by hiring a new chancellor who listens!
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