Provost Robert Shelton and Nancy Suttenfield, vice chancellor for finance and administration, announced at Thursday's Transportation and Parking Advisory Committee meeting that all on-campus student resident parking will be eliminated by 2007.
Student Body Vice President Rudy Kleysteuber said issues typically are discussed at length in committee before a decision is made, allowing student representatives to voice their opinions.
But Dorothy Ariail, one of the three student members of TPAC, said Monday that Shelton and Suttenfield decided to eliminate parking for residence hall students before the issue came to the committee.
Student Body President Justin Young said he was disheartened with the administration's approach to developing the plan. "This was a very big decision, and we were not consulted or informed before it was made," he said. "This sets a horrible precedent for major decisions on campus."
Kleysteuber said students need to be vigilant about maintaining communication with University officials. "It's now up to students to make sure that this doesn't become a pattern of making decisions behind closed doors," he said.
UNC officials, including Shelton and Carolyn Elfland, associate vice chancellor for auxiliary services, said they are not aware of any student contributions to the decision to eliminate parking for on-campus students.
Shelton said he understands students' concerns but said he believes eliminating resident student parking is the best way to deal with the campus' parking crunch. "Parking is a horrible, horrible issue here," he said. "It's going to get worse for a couple of years before it gets better."
Shelton said the University will try to accommodate students through a number of off-campus parking alternatives. These options include fare-free busing, which will be implemented in January, and increasing the frequency of bus service, as well as developing more park-and-ride programs.
But many students on campus are still upset by the new plan.
