Officials Have Few Feasible Options for Parking Plan

Two proposals have been considered by officials to fill a deficit in the UNC-CH Department of Public Safety's budget next year -- but neither proposal is proving to be feasible.

Under one proposal, administrators called for the issuing of night permits and day permits that would have been valid at night as well. The UNC-CH Board of Trustees voted 6-5 Friday to send a proposal for night parking back to the administration -- citing issues such as restricted campus access and safety.

Another proposal by the UNC-CH Transportation and Parking Advisory Committee, which was rejected by the administration, called for a $5 per semester student fee increase.

Now that administrators have been placed in charged of coming up with a plan that resolves the DPS' budget issues without a night parking system, remaining options are unclear. System officials say the schedule of the UNC-system Board of Governors greatly decreases the chance of officials passing a student fee increase to pay for parking next school year.

Because fee increases must be approved by the BOG, the board would have to consider raising student fees to generate revenue at its May meeting, a highly uncommon occurrence.

The BOG already approved all tuition and fee increases for the next academic year at its March 6 meeting. BOG Chairman Ben Ruffin said the board will not consider additional fee increases at this point. "The time has passed."

Andrew Payne, president of the UNC-system Association of Student Governments and a nonvoting BOG member, also said he does not expect the board to consider the fee request because the period for increase recommendations has passed. "The board has already reviewed fee increases," Payne said. "Any submissions would be considered in the 2002-03 school year."

UNC-CH Chancellor James Moeser said he was not surprised to learn that the BOG will not hear proposals for another fee increase. "We had never assumed that they would," he said.

Although he would not comment specifically, Moeser said that when the administration makes a revised proposal, it will not involve a student fee increase.

UNC-CH Student Body President Justin Young said the BOT's motion to send the night parking plan back to the administration is evidence that the plan is not feasible. "As it stands, the night parking plan didn't work," he said. "I wasn't in support of it and enough of the trustees weren't in support of it. It's up to the administration to present an alternative."

Payne also said he disagrees with the possibility of UNC-CH using money from a student fee to fund something that would not benefit the entire student body. "I'd always rather see the fee go to the users of the service."

Payne emphasized that the process of considering fee and tuition issues at the appointed time is beneficial to students. "There's a set timeline to allow interested parties on campus to have input," he said. "The only hope that students' voices will be heard is to follow the procedures."

Payne said that if the BOG were to reconvene to consider a fee increase for UNC-CH students, it would probably have negative effects in the future. "It would be a bad precedent," he said. "Over the past two years we've seen that going outside of the norm -- especially in our two research institutions -- opens up a can of worms that you just don't want."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.