The Student Association Parking Committee Thursday met with parking representative Henry Winsor and suggested the need for increased student representation on committees dealing with parking problems.

The Administrative Parking Task Force is an advisory committee which studies parking problems and gives recommendations to NIU President John LaTourette and the Campus Parking Committee. The campus committee makes actual parking proposals and allocates the budget.

The SA designed its own parking committee to study the composition of these committees. Winsor is the only student member on the 13-member task force and one of four students on the 20-member campus parking committee.

The SA committee invited Winsor to inform the committee of progress the task force has made, Stern said.

SA Sen. Dave Stern, also SA committee chairman, said students are not fairly represented on either parking committee. Since about 50 percent of the parking budget comes from student fees, students must get more representation on the committee, he said.

Winsor said having more representation by faculty members and administrators does not mean the task force is biased against the students. The committee was initiated by NIU President John LaTourette to recommend ways to solve the parking problems on campus.

Winsor said he does not believe the students have demonstrated in any way that their interest has not been protected at the committee.

The SA committee also suggested to Winsor the construction of a multi-level garage as a way to solve the parking problem and control the vehicular flow, but Winsor did not agree with Stern’s suggestion.

Winsor said some members of the task force believe the Illinois contractors, who have constructed several of NIU’s buildings, have not shown architectural competency. He gave an example of architectural faults in the Holmes Student Center.

Winsor said the task force will submit its recommendation to LaTourette in the second week of January. The recommendation will include the task force’s consensus that a multi-level garage is not financially viable for the university.

Winsor said the task force has agreed freshmen and sophomores should not be deprived from parking spaces. He also said the task force is discussing the possibility of reducing parking space for graduate assistants.

Winsor said this idea has been discussed but no decision has been made.