Committee’s suggestions address parking problems
November 6, 1992
The Campus Parking Committee passed several recommendations dealing with NIU construction problems at its monthly meeting Thursday.
Four recommendations were passed. The first recommendation dealt with accommodations of visitor parking during campus construction of the parking garage and the Campus Life Building. The recommendation proposes that lot five be converted into visitor parking because the current visitor parking lot on the corner of Normal Road and Lucinda Avenue is being used as the site for the Campus Life Building.
The second and third proposals concern an experiment the Parking Committee hopes to hold. The committee is proposing to experiment with reserved parking with the residence halls.
The proposal allots 30 reserved parking spaces for both the Gilbert and Neptune residence halls. The spots will be allocated to applicants by lottery, and at a fee of $100.
Reserved parking will also be made available at lots A, B, E, H and S. These spaces will also be allocated by lottery of $100. These parking spaces will be made available to commuter students and for a time period between 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The other recommendation provides for reserved parking spaces for faculty members. The spaces will be reserved for the same time period as the commuter spaces. Faculty members requesting these spaces will be allotted a $200 fee for the spaces that are available.
All of the recommendations were passed by the committee, and will be sent to James Harder, vice president of Business and Operations.
The committee also discussed the problems with vehicle safety in university parking lots. One idea that was discussed was the hiring of two officers and the purchase of one vehicle to monitor the lots. Committee Chair Gary Vander Meer said the cost of this would be about $75,000.
The committee decided this was too much money to spend on security due to the money problems being caused by construction. Vander Meer also said there will be an increase of parking patrols over the next couple of years.
After the meeting, student representative John Miller said the discussion was “an attempt to deal with security problems reported by the students.
“We can’t do anything without people reporting incidents of vandalism,” he added.
Miller said he encouraged students to report vandalism that takes place in the parking lots so the committee can get a better picture of the security situation.