Fees on evening/weekend campus parking only cause harm
Campus parking during evening and weekend will be charged in many parking facilities starting this fall, see Transportation Services’ announcement (http://www.news.wisc.edu/20552). A permit of $40 or $125 must be purchased and citations will be issued otherwise.
According to Transportation Services, the new policy is created to close a large structural deficit gap. However, to implement this policy is costly. The extra expenses include, but are not limited to hiring extra parking patrol officers and extra office staff, installation and maintenance of barrier gates, meters and other equipments. The list can go on and on.
Free evening and weekend parking provides flexibility for the whole community. Everybody, including base lot permit holders, will feel the inconvenience and frustration once the new policy goes into effect.
Graduate students and post doc fellows working day and night in a lab or office, have to pay parking.
Faculty members and academic staff working extremely hard and overtime, have to pay parking.
Office staffs doing a lot work over weekend receiving no pay, have to pay parking.
Custodians working at night, have to pay parking.
Base-lot permit holders who want to use alternative lots, have to pay parking. Plus, your home lot might be double booked for evening and weekend.
Taxpayers visiting campus regularly, buy a permit. But be aware, transportation office is closed after 4:30pm and during weekend.
Taxpayers visiting campus occasionally, bring a lot change to feed parking meters. You also need an alarm clock to avoid overtime parking. Otherwise, parking tickets will cost you more than an evening permit.
Students or visitors with no car to park, have nothing to worry. However, you will get bored eventually in this university. The parking trap on campus scares people away and you would be very lucky if you see couple survivors showing up on campus.
The bottom line is parking fees, no matter how small they is, will turn people away from campus.
Our university, including parking facilities, belongs to the public. Most parking lots are empty during night and weekend. Why not open to the public? From business standpoint view, this will attract more people to the campus and that will bring more business, income, diversity and vibration. From moral standpoint view, this is what a public school can do for the society in return.
The new policy, causes inconveniences for the whole community, creates man-made obstacles to our open campus, and ruins the liberty and openness of our university. It makes our school spiritually unwholesome.
This policy must be stopped, because fees on evening/weekend campus parking only cause harm.