University of Richmond SmackDown: Parking vs. Construction

Multiple construction projects on campus have changed where people can park, causing a lot of angst for faculty, staff, students and, believe it or not, Parking Services members. I spoke with Natalia Green, director of Parking Services, and Bill Rawluk, the senior parking enforcement specialist (we call him Mr. Bill), to get an idea of exactly how construction has changed parking.

There are some technical changes. C-lot and U-lot sticker-holders can now park in X-lot and the Special Events Parking lot. I appreciate this because I am a commuter and a lazy bum who prefers to drive to the gym. C-lot stickers go to commuting students and U-lot stickers are for night-class students who can park anywhere commuters can. U-lot passes are just C-lot passes, but at a discounted rate because Parking Services assumes night-class students will not be on campus as much as day students.

Because there is now a road running through one of the C-lots (there are four), Parking Services is doing as much as it can to make sure there are enough spaces for commuters, Green said. They are also trying to accommodate law school students who no longer have as many spaces in J-lot or L-lot, which has been closed altogether. Those students can now park in Special Events Parking along with faculty, staff, commuters and off-campus gym users from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Friday. After that time, any registered cars can park in Special Events, as is the case for any other lot that has a time restriction.

Something else I learned from speaking with Parking Services officials is that all visitors are required to get a temporary pass. People who use the gym on a regular basis, people who are here for regularly scheduled events, etc., have to get a pass. If Mr. Bill notices the same car parking in a particular lot and it does not have a parking pass, he will usually write a warning ticket and eventually an actual ticket. The University Police Department is connected to the Department of Motor Vehicles, making it possible for them to write tickets to people who are not in the Parking Services system. Police officers and the night-shift parking crew can also write tickets, because the lots are monitored 24-7.

One of the biggest changes this year was the elimination of about 30 student parking spaces from D-lot, the lot that runs in front of Jeter Hall and Whitehurst. For now and the rest of the near-distant future (basically, we have no idea when), students will not be allowed to park there until after 5 p.m., Monday through Friday and on weekends. Now the lot is used for visitors to the Office of Admissions. It will eventually become a faculty and staff lot, Green said. Students who would have been able to park in D-lot are now given X-lot stickers.

So far there haven't been any more tickets written this year than last, Mr. Bill said, but there have been a lot more cars towed. If people choose to create their own parking spaces in the grass, in walkways, etc., their cars will be towed. Green said she had been sending e-mails to people warning them that their cars were about to be towed and many of them responded. But for those wh didn't, their cars made their way to the impound. Faculty and staff members have been contributing the most to this, Green said. They are allowed to park anywhere except visitor spots, but they are continuing to park in unmarked places and have been towed. Faculty and staff can be, and are, ticketed, but because they can park almost anywhere, the bulk of the problem lies with them creating their own parking spaces.

There are also fewer parking spaces now, and more drivers, Green said, which will be an even greater problem after Thanksgiving and winter break, when more freshmen come back with cars. Also, when the football stadium opens in fall 2010, campus is going to be a mad house for parking on Saturdays. The soon-to-be Carole Weinstein International Center is taking up parking spaces and no extra spaces are being made to accompany it. The stadium will not have any extra parking either.

There aren't very many solutions to these problems except to park where you're allowed and do some walking. Faculty, staff and commuters have to get to their respective lots earlier to guarantee they get a spot, and on-campus students need to stay in their assigned spots from about 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. or risk getting a ticket. Having to get to work or class on time is not a legitimate excuse for parking where you are not allowed and the appeal board tends to reject those kinds of appeals. You just have to do as I have done in the past and decide whether making it to your destination on time is worth $30.

Green said there wasn't an easy solution, that the construction had made parking difficult to figure out and that it was going to be inconvenient. Unfortunately, parking spaces don't grow on trees (or in the grass) and people will just have to live with the inconvenience. Green said it took some tough skin to work in Parking Services because of all the complaints it receives, but after working there for more than 20 years, she had learned to deal with them.

Of course, if you do think you have received an undeserved ticket, you can make an appeal to the appeals board. The board is made up of about seven students, including a School of Continuing Studies student who is also a staff member. One of Green's student workers will present the appeals to the board and describe extenuating circumstances, and the board will decide whether to dismiss the ticket. About one-third of all appeals are granted, Green said.

Tickets normally have a fee of $30 and can be paid in a myriad of ways, including with a SpiderCard, credit card or cash. For students, the charge is added to tuition costs and is paid however a student's tuition is paid. Parking Services never sees the money, Green said. All of the payments are made through the Bursar and the money goes in to the university's General Fund, which is used by the university in a number of ways. Parking Services' budget comes from the university and covers things such as office supplies. The university pays Green and Mr. Bill, and Mr. Bill does not receive any kind of commission.

Contact staff writer Stephanie Rice at stephanie.rice@richmond.edu