TPAC Approves Night Parking Fee

Although members were able to reach agreement Wednesday on the issue of night parking permits, TPAC is facing a strict deadline of next week to complete the rest of its recommendation regarding the Department of Public Safety's budget.

The committee has been discussing charging for night parking to help alleviate DPS's $2 million budget shortfall for next year. Most recently, the final budget proposal was hindered by a misunderstanding at last week's meeting when Chairman Bob Knight presented his own directives and falsely attributed them to Chancellor James Moeser.

After an exhausting and sometimes bitter debate about the different options for night parking, the committee resolved to vote on a motion that would force students to shoulder some of the budgetary burden.

Revenue from the $5 addition to student fees is predicted to raise $265,000 yearly. Combined with the projected revenue from faculty and staff parking permits and visitor parking, DPS would generate $845,000. After subtracting associated costs of increased safety and transit, the net revenue would produce $529,000 toward erasing the shortfall.

Filing deadlines for the addition of a new student fee already have passed, making it impossible for the fee to be implemented this fall. To begin eliminating the shortfall, the committee recommended that the University make a one-time contribution of $265,000 to cover the revenue that would have been generated by the fee increase next year.

Student members of TPAC lobbied successfully to package the night parking charge as a student fee so that the cost could be covered by financial aid.

Under a motion written by Emily Williamson, the TPAC graduate student representative, students will register their cars with DPS and receive a parking sticker allowing them to park in campus lots at night. TPAC members have not yet decided which lots will be available to students -- several lots will be reserved for faculty and staff only.

The committee also requested that DPS evaluate the feasibility of allowing individual students to petition for a reimbursement of the fee after members voiced concern about charging students who would not utilize night parking.

"It is regressive and unjust to students who don't have cars," said committee member Boone Turchi. Instead, Turchi insisted that only the students who wanted to park on campus be charged the fee.

But Student Body President Justin Young, who first proposed the idea of the new student fee, said students are willing to bear the cost in exchange for night parking on campus. He compared the fee to the Student Recreation Center fee that all students pay whether or not they use the facilities.

TPAC also voted 17-3, with one member abstaining, to ask UNC's budget committee to pledge money toward decreasing the DPS shortfall, although no figures were set. Although the committee reached a decision on night parking, members said they still have more to do before a complete budget recommendation can be presented to the chancellor as requested.

The committee will meet next week to complete its recommendations. In addition to finalizing numbers for the issues they approved Wednesday, members still need to reach a decision about increasing the price of daytime parking permits and raising the fee that individual departments contribute to transportation.

Carolyn Elfland, associate vice chancellor for campus services, said the night parking decision was a crucial. "It is very significant because it comes up with about a quarter of what we need to fund next year."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.