Parking lot improvements proposed

By Mary Martin

The Faculty Senate proposed refurbishing the Chick Evans Field House parking lot, presented the Bob Lane Eternal Vigilance Award and re-elected its president at its last meeting of the year Wednesday evening.

“This is nothing more than a proposal, it has not been approved for construction,” said Norm Jenkins, chairman of the campus parking committee, in regard to altering the parking lot.

The proposed changes include adding an entrance from Lucinda Avenue into Lot 20 and rearranging the parking lanes so they run north and south, reducing the number of spaces in the lot.

The plan was shown to the committee to address the concerns permit holders have expressed regarding the lot.

“It would provide safer passage in, around and through that lot for pedestrians, and it would also provide a lane that would provide room for people to drop pedestrians off,” Jenkins said.

Also included in the meeting’s events was the presentation of the Bob Lane Eternal Vigilance Award, given to Joseph Stephen, vice president of the senate and an associate professor in the mathematical sciences department.

Stephen said he felt honored to receive the award and his investigation into the use of surveillance techniques by University Police may have been a factor in his being chosen for the accolade.

Stephen conducted the investigation during Vice President Dick Cheney’s visit to the university Sept. 18, 2004. University Police used cameras to surveil crowds at the Convocation Center.

Formerly known as the “Bottom of the Deck award,” the honorary recognition began with Bob Lane, a former senator who had a long history of watching to see whether the administration was trying to pull something on the faculty, Stephen said.

“It was created in Bob Lane’s honor when Charlie Larson was president,” senate parliamentarian Ferald Bryan said. “I think there have been some changes since then.”

The faculty senators also unanimously re-elected president Paul Stoddard in an executive session and voted on the election of University Council Personnel Committee representatives for 2005-2007.