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New parking structure has students paying twice
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Boise State’s first parking structure is supposed to ease tension for commuters. However, the 650 space structure has student advocates searching for equity and institutional democracy.
Students contribute, and will continue to contribute, roughly $20 per student per semester to retire the debt incurred from the construction of the $3.9 million parking garage.
Students will pay 75 cents per hour to park in the complex.
The public will also pay 75 cents per hour for parking privileges.
Students essentially subsidize parking costs for the public, said ASBSU President Nate Peterson. “It’s an issue of equity for students who have already funded the parking.” He said students are being asked to pay for the garage twice D once through student fees and again through hourly rates.
Peterson finds the lack of student participation in the decision making process that determined the price of parking fees equally disturbing.
The decision to charge the public and students the same hourly rate to use the structure was made by the parking committee last year. Peterson said the committee was composed mostly of administrators.
Though two students D former ASBSU presidents Matt Bott and Christine Starr D sat on that committee, Peterson said their votes didn’t represent the wishes of most student commuters. Starr and Bott could not be reached for comment.
John Franden, Executive Assistant to the President and chair of the parking committee, said the President’s Cabinet established the pay per hour parking policy at the new parking structure and the parking committee set the fees. He said the committee had originally wanted to give students a discount.
“We were very hopeful parking [fees] would be a dollar per hour [for the public] and students would pay 50 cents per hour,” Franden said.
Bob Seibolt, director of campus safety and a member of the parking committee said the vendors that provide the technology for the fee paying system told the parking committee is was possible to charge two separate rates for garage users.
But in the finial stages of developing the fee system, Seibolt said the committee was told the technology needed to charge two rates did not exist.
Seibolt said the vendors told the committee it would cost in excess of $100,000 to develop such a two-tiered fee collection system.
“We invite anyone to get on the phone with vendors and they will be told the same thing.” Seibolt said.
Franden said the vendors were not willing to invest in the research and development needed for such a system.
The committee then opted to approve a 75 cent per hour fee for all users of the parking structure. Franden said the committee took the proposed fee to the ASBSU Senate for final approval where it gained unanimous approval.
Still, Peterson wants to see the committee do its homework and look for alternatives to the 75 cent for all fee. He also wants to see more student voices represented on the parking committee.
Franden said students could have a voice in parking decisions. He said students can go through ASBSU and apply for an appointment as a voting member of the parking committee. The meetings are also open to the public to observe and speak.
“They’re more than welcome, the more the merrier,” Franden said. “It’s a very open committee. . .it’s semi formal. . .They just need to get on the agenda”
But Peterson says the committee’s meeting location is not very welcoming to students. Only limited seating accommodations are available in the committee’s usual meeting location, the President’s conference room.
A boycott against the parking structure is one option student advocates are considering. If student protests do materialize, it may become difficult to use the parking structure during the second week of school.
The next parking committee meeting will be held in the President’s conference room, located in the Business Building, room 307, on Sept. 18 at 3 p.m.