Faculty Council (1/29/98) and University Senate (1/31/98)

Faculty Council (1/29/98) and University Senate (1/31/98)
Faculty Council
Faculty Council meeting on Thursday, Jan. 22, 1998, at 3:30 p.m.

Parking Master Plan

A consultant described the plan that will be presented to the Board of Trustees. The likely plan will include increases in central campus faculty parking fees from $222 per year to $500 per year over a 3 year period, with a similar percent increase for student fees and B sticker fees ($83 to $175). The consultant explained that the OSU parking system has been seriously underfunded, and, for instance, the University of Michigan charges faculty $875 per year.
The extra revenue will be used for deferred maintenance on parking garages, improving the bus service, and building 3000 additional spaces on central campus, as well as provision for staff parking during the day for those who need to run official errands.
The consultant said that the goal is to make it possible to find parking on central campus.
Low cost parking on West Campus would still be available. I stated that my experience with West Campus parking was that bus service was unreliable, especially within an hour of the last posted time. Sarah agreed it was a problem, but asserted that it had improved in the past year.
I suggested that extra revenue could be raised by charging a high price for reserved spots. The consultant said that it might be inefficient to have reserved spaces empty much of the time. I suggested that the high price reserved spots could come with hang tags, so that, for instance, a department could choose to buy one for errands, etc. (Perhaps this could be an alternative for the Friends of the Collection, though not for casual visitors to the Collection.)
University Traffic and Parking Web Page

1. The new president will be coming to campus at least once a month, but will not be here permanently until after June 1.
2. State needs at least a 3/4% sales tax increase (the only feasible revenue increase source) to meet the court mandate and maintain higher education, etc.
3. Several major initiatives will continue:
Selective Investment, for long term projects.
Academic Enrichment for shorter term, more concrete projects.
Faculty Development

Sherman Hanna, (click to email: HANNA.1@OSU.EDU)