Forum addresses parking woes

Parking Services answers students' complaints, listens to suggestions

Amy Paterson / senior photographer Towana Moore, assistant vice president for Business Services, responds to students' questions during the Student Government Association-sponsored Parking Forum last Wednesday.

About 50 students voiced their concerns to officials during a Student Government Association-sponsored Parking Forum held Wednesday.

Students and administrators discussed a wide variety of parking-related issues, including the number of campus parking spaces, the parking ticket appeals process and rates for fines and fees. The students who attended had questions answered by a panel of officials and many also offered their own suggestions to parking problems they've claimed to have encountered.

The Problem
Most students at the forum expressed concern over the difficulty of finding a parking space to get to class. With over 17,000 students, faculty and staff at JMU, many students said the nearly 8,000 parking spaces are inadequate.

A total of 2,708 parking spaces are allocated for nearly 9,000 commuter students, according to the Parking Services Web site, www.web.jmu.edu/parking. About 500 less, a total of 2,307 spaces, are open to JMU's 5,800 residents.

After a presentation given by members of the forum, the floor was opened to students, who also voiced concern for a number of specific problems. Many offered their own solutions.

Student Suggestions
One student asked if C1 Lot, an unpaved parking lot, would ever be paved. Towana Moore, assistant vice president for Business Services, responded that JMU doesn't own, but leases, that lot, and therefore can't pave it.

Moore also responded to questions on the possibility of a new 120-space parking deck. She said no timeline or location has been set.

"We're just in the beginning stages of talking about that," she said.

Sophomore Ammar Shallal raised many questions with the panelists about the parking situation.

"JMU gives out the most tickets per year [out of any Virginia University]," he said, citing that about 32,000 tickets are given at JMU in contrast to only 16,000 at Old Dominion University, which enrolls more than 20,000 students.

At ODU, a student's first ticket serves as a warning and is void. Shallal suggested JMU adopt a similar system.

Moore said the suggestion would be considered.

Shallal also questioned JMU's need for 32 parking enforcers. He said that Radford University only had four.

Moore responded that only five were full-time employees, and Radford is a much smaller school.

Some students questioned the effectiveness of the appeals process for tickets. Of the more than 16,000 tickets given this year, 899 appeals have been filed. Of those, 54 were voided. Another 158 are still in review.

Moore said the parking appeals panel is a board appointed by JMU President Linwood Rose.

"Once you put your ticket under appeal, it's out of the hands of the parking office," she said.

Other students recommended that Parking Services open up R9 Lot to more students. The student asked why the chained off areas were not open to commuters or residents with the proper passes over the weekend. The restricted areas of the lot can be accessed off Paterson Street, according to members of the panel.

A suggestion to run a shuttle from academic buildings to some of the farther-reaching parking lots also was introduced, as well as capping the number of parking permits issued per year.

Moore said, to her knowledge, no university has ever placed a cap on the amount permits it sells.

Suggestions on behalf of the Madison Motorcycle Club included restoring motorcycle spaces to save space for cars and moving these spots to the front of lots to deter theft.

Moore responded that Parking Services would consider many of these requests.
"We'll certainly explore our options," she said.

The turnout
Junior Jenny Brockwell, SGA vice president of Administrative Affairs, said she thought ideas like a first warning ticket were a good idea, and added that she thought Parking Services would "definitely follow through" on many of the suggestions.

Brockwell expressed concerns with the turnout.

"I wish more students could have come," she said. "But, I'm very happy with the comments and difference of opinion."

Shallal said he had similar concerns with the poor turnout.

"It's really a testament to our generation to just complain and not go for change," he said. "It's just sad."

While Shallal said he was glad he had an opportunity to publicly address his parking concerns, he felt the administration would take no action on the suggestions.

"They're just doing this to appease us," he said. "There will be no end result that will be beneficial to the students."