UHCL, we still have a parking situation

UHCL students and administrators assembled Nov. 11 for a town hall meeting to air their grievances to the Parking Management Department (PMD).

The concerns presented at the town hall meeting ranged from a masquerade ball to motorcycles. Foremost on the minds of the attendees were unused parking tokens purchased under the old parking system.

“There has not been any exchange offer made to us at this point, although we have reached out to [the PMD],” said David Rachita, interim dean of students. “That is something that we are going to continue to pursue. It’s important that people who are coming to campus out of the goodness of their heart – that we don’t want it to be a burden to them with parking fees.”

Derrell Means, supervisor of facilities management and construction and the director of the PMD, said that the token portion was not relinquished by the police department to the PMD.

“It was my understanding that the visitor parking lot has been broken for about a year now, and that everybody had those tokens,” Means said. “So over the course of a year, you haven’t been using the tokens, but you’ve been utilizing the facilities and parking.”

“I don’t know the assumption that ‘we would have used them anyway’ may or may not be true,” responded Darlene Biggers, associate vice president of student services.

Biggers said that the tokens purchased by the various departments come from student service fees and must show a benefit to the student.

“I know many departments on campus are struggling with that issue,” Biggers said.

Ward Martaindale, associate vice president of facilities management and construction, confirmed in a separate interview that the PMD has no plans to reimburse the tokens.

“In the senior leadership meeting, Dr. Staples said that the possibility of reimbursement could come from funds in his area,” Martaindale said. “So, it’s continuing to be looked at. It’s still in the works.”

Under the new system, visitors must purchase a visitor parking permit from the kiosk located in the Delta Building parking lot. The PMD, in response to concerns from students, administration and faculty, have added new lower-cost payment options for visitor parking. In addition to the all-day visitor parking permit that costs $5, there are now permits available for two hours at $2.50 and four hours at $4.

The parking kiosk accepts credit or debit cards only. This has raised another concern among students and administrators.

“It seems like an inequality issue,” said Holley Hood, anthropology major. “Like, not everybody has a credit card. There was a time I didn’t have a debit or a credit card. Two years ago that would have been a really hard issue to deal with, and that would put me more and more in the hole.”

The sentiment that requiring a credit card to park on campus could potentially be a deterrent to prospective students was shared by Andrew Reitberger, associate director of student life.

“I can remember being a student and having an empty bank account and no credit cards and a bowl full of change,” Reitberger said.

Harry Glass, parking operations supervisor, suggested that the solution could be as simple as going to Wal-Mart and purchasing a prepaid credit card.

“I would ask if you guys would think through that one a little bit and maybe come up with a process behind the scenes that you’re prepared to use in case this situation comes up,” Rachita requested.

One subject touched upon several times was the need for a parking storefront or window that could be utilized for forgotten parking permits or the ability to speak to a PMD staff member.

“I don’t anticipate we would ever have a window open because when you have a window open, you’re obligated to staff it, and we don’t have that staffing,” Martaindale said. “That’s why we have offered to all the university – if your organization has a need or desire, we’re available. We’ll come out and talk to you.”

Another concern addressed was the lack of employee parking and the students who were mistakenly issued employee parking permits.

“At the FSSC (Facilities and Support Services Committee) meeting, some teachers expressed their concern because they have to park really far out in student parking because there are students taking their spaces,” said Serenity Trevino, legal studies major and vice president – committee coordinator of Student Government Association. “They kind of feel disrespected.”

Means said there were about five or six students who were inadvertently issued employee parking permits, and since the number was so few, they were going to overlook them.

“That’s where we were having some problems; a lot of students were parking in the employee parking lots,” Martaindale said. “So that was our first area that we focused. I think they’ve written over 300 citations, focusing on that area trying to get that under control.”

One decision made at the town hall meeting was that weekend parking, which is from Friday at noon until Sunday at midnight, would remain free of charge until further notice.

“We don’t have any anticipation of [charging for weekend parking],” Martaindale said. “At some point, our academic load may get high enough on Saturday that we need to. That would be driving that decision, how the academics impact it.”

Martaindale said that, at least initially, any visitor citations issued in error will be readily canceled out.

“We’re not looking to make a profit here,” Martaindale continued. “We’re looking just to make parking convenient for the employees that are here and for the students that are here and for the visitors. And to make it convenient, everyone has to be where they’re supposed to be, and that’s really what we’re trying to accomplish.”