Campus parking continues to pose a problem

The problem of parking at IU has never ceased to be the No. 1 complaint from students and Bloomington residents. Many people stare in envy at a car with an A or C permit, while lowly dorm dwellers' mouths water for a D permit.\nAccording to Doug Porter, director IU parking operations, a total of 4,800 A permits, 3,100 C permits and 5,100 E permits were sold last year.\nIU employees and instructors are able to attain an A or C permit, while students in the residence halls can have a D or E permit, Porter said. Students in fraternity and sorority houses are allowed to park in their house lots without a permit. Some might choose to park in a pay lot or garage daily rather than buying a permit, which could cost between $95-$100 per year. \nPorter said IU makes $26,000 per year on parking garage income, $145,000 on parking meters and $2.5 million on permits. Another major money maker is revenue collected from parking fines, which brings in $4.7 million annually. A typical ticket costs between $30-35 and Porter said many are handed out to students parking in residence hall lots without D permits. Porter said about 10,000 to 15,000 parking tickets are appealed, but that only about half are approved.\n"All expenses go back into the parking operations; from paper clips for the office, to building parking garages," Porter said. \nBut, some students decide to use mass transit instead.\nDuring the 2000-2001 academic year, the first phase of the universal bus system, which merges the Bloomington Transit and campus bus systems together, was implemented. In the first phase, IU students can ride the city transit for free by simply flashing their student ID. During the first week of classes, the annual promotion, "free ride week," was offered to students.\n"The week has gone as well as expected but free ride week always has higher ridership," said James Hosler, director of Campus Bus Services.\nNot all students share that view though.\n"I'm kind of upset that everyone has to pay for the bus use even if we don't choose to use it," said senior Julie Moore.\nWith so many parking complaints from people, Porter said he hopes "the bus system will take some pressure off of parking."\nThere are 30 campus buses that run all over campus on weekdays from 7:30 a.m. to midnight and 10 a.m. to midnight on weekends. A year-long bus pass costs about $200.\nPorter said he gets a lot of complaints about "no parking spaces," although he said "there's never been a day when every parking space at Indiana University was filled."\n"The problem is finding a convenient parking space," Porter said.\nHe added that the only thing that can be done is to continue stacking the parking in the form of garages and by the time those are done, most students now will be long gone.\nJunior Brad Pure disagrees and said parking is indeed a problem.\n"I think there should be more E spots available on campus," he said. "The (Indiana Memorial Union) should accept E permits. I think if they did this, more students would be motivated to go to class because they could drive and wouldn't have to walk or wait for buses.\nFreshman Megan Slota agrees.\n"I've seen freshmen get D permits over sophomores, and that doesn't seem fair because sophomores should have seniority," she said.