Students could face parking loss

The first President's Parking Commission meeting Monday morning was largely inconclusive, but committee member and Student Body Vice President Andrew Lauck said student parking isn't going to get better anytime soon.\nThe 15-member committee, initiated last month by the Bloomington Faculty Council and IU President Adam Herbert to address concerns and provide recommendations for improvement on current parking policies, is comprised of a mixture of student, faculty and staff representatives. \n"(In a) general sense, (it was) just getting folks to talk about what they saw some of the issues were," said Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Bruce Jacobs, who co-chairs the committee. \nThey met to discuss seven points charged by Herbert.\nThe "appropriateness" of selling A and C parking permits to students, the use of reserved spaces throughout the campus, parking permit prices, the construction of a new parking garage near the Law School and the existence of lots near residence halls as D lots were among the seven points Herbert wished to be addressed, according to a letter addressed from him to Graduate and Professional Student Organization moderator and committee member Paul Rohwer. \nRohwer said a primary issue discussed at the meeting was the pressure to find more spots for faculty on the Bloomington campus.\n"The places that they're looking to make reductions are student parking, so they're trying to find ways to push students to park at the stadium," he said.\nLauck and Matt Jarson, committee member and Residence Halls Association president, acknowledged that there is talk of reevaluating D spaces on campus in order to open up spaces for faculty that are near academic buildings. Both Lauck and Jarson expressed opposition to such a plan.\n"IUSA (and me in my capacity as its representative on the board) disagree with any initiative that would take away permit access from students who need them for their contributions to the University," Lauck said in an e-mail.\nJacobs said the biggest issue for the summer meeting was the creation of a parking garage near the intersection of Atwater Avenue and Third Street, which would make for a temporary loss of more than 140 parking spaces. \nRohwer said the creation of the structure has been delayed by state legislature and that he suggested at the meeting that the University rid the $5 bike permit fee to encourage bike riding to campus to open up more parking spaces. \nStill, Jacobs said all discussion was "philosophical" at this point, and Monday's meeting was only an early discussion "regarding the whole range of who should have access and where people should park."\nJacobs said the next parking commission meeting is tentatively set for August and recommendations to the president should be made by the end of the fall 2006 semester.\n"We're still very much in the planning stages," Jarson said. "We probably won't see a resolution on anything for quite some time"