The funds students use each year to pay for parking tickets and permits does more than try to adjust their parking behaviors.

The $1.9 million annual budget for Campus Parking Services – almost half of which is from the sale of parking permits – contributes to parking and road improvements all over campus.

This summer, CPS will pay $750,000 to renovate Gilbert Drive, located by the Art Building, and $460,000 to repave NIU’s visitors’ parking lot.

“We’re trying to control the parking situation,” said Ron Pearson, coordinator for parking and traffic at NIU. “There’s a huge difference between sufficient parking and convenient parking – that’s the battle. It’s not possible to provide convenient parking for everybody.”

In the last three years, CPS projects have included: a $21,000 extension that added about 100 spaces to Lot A1 (by the Engineering Building); a $25,000 project that tripled available lighting at Lot X (next to Annie Glidden Road near Lincoln Hall); the purchase of Carroll Cinemas (next to Dollar Video, 1127 Lincoln Highway) that created 200 parking spaces; and a project in 2000 that added 80 spaces to Lot W (near Grant Towers).

“We’re constantly trying to tweak the system to get as much available parking as possible,” Pearson said.

Students who drive to campus have to search for available parking each day. Piotr Antosiak, a junior computer science major, commutes from Chicago.

“If you show up at 10, 10:30 [a.m.], it’s always a problem,” Antosiak said. “You’ll have to park in the boonies, or spend a half-hour driving around looking for a spot.”

Antosiak said he realized that Campus Parking Services is trying to solve the problem, but offered a suggestion.

“Cut the parks,” he said. “It’s all beautiful and everything, but we need more parking.”

Dawn Kuhnlohe, a junior family social services major, has a yellow parking permit, which is for commuter students and costs $60 annually.

“They need more student-only parking,” she said. “I think there’s enough, just enough, but a little more could be more sufficient.”

When parking officials increased some fines July 1, the goal was to alter the parking habits of violators. Fines for “no registration” and “permit not valid” – two of the three most common offenses, Pearson said – were raised from $20 to $40, along with three other increases.

“It’s not like we’re out there trying to earn more income,” Pearson said. “Our goal is to change behavior and correct parking problems … Our rationale was that it was apparent that $20 was not enough influence to change behavior – the facts show it was true.”

He said there have been less violations so far, but it’s difficult to specifically track that kind of information.

Fines collected are a portion of the CPS budget, which is designed to fund parking lot projects but also helps NIU with on-campus road renovations.

Most recently, CPS paid for “a good chunk” of the summer 2002 renovations of University Circle (the road to DuSable Hall), Stadium Drive and other roads near the residence halls, Pearson said.

The department’s annual expenses include paying eight full-time employees, seven part-time student employees and a $165,000 payment to University Police for three parking enforcement employees. CPS also foots the bill for some snow removal expenses. In late 2001, a large snowfall left the department with a $65,000 snow-removal bill – for the month of December.

A discussion of parking issues takes place on the first Thursday of each month at Campus Parking Committee meetings. Its gatherings begin at 2 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month at the Holmes Student Center, Room 306. They are open to the public.

For information about parking on campus, call CPS at 753-1045.