Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1958 [PAGE 1297]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1294

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[June 19

officers. Among the alternatives before us, the plan presents the only possibility for improvement in the immediate future. All points of view on the plan have been reviewed and taken into account in the recommendations which follow. T h e Traffic and Parking Board has worked arduously and conscientiously. Extended consultations have been held with students and staff, individually and in groups. From these discussions, modifications and reconciliations have been made wherever possible without impairing the over-all principles of operation and the objectives. As is inevitable in dealing with such a subject, critics still remain. T h e plan does promise to effect a substantial improvement in existing arrangements, however, and deserves a trial. T h e plan is based upon giving full-time members of the staff priority in the use of University lots, with some additional spaces being made available through fees voluntarily paid. Further, parking on University streets is reserved for full-time and junior staff. Undergraduates are restricted from daytime parking in an area enlarged over the one previously defined to allow staff members and graduate students not accommodated in University lots and streets to park nearer to their work location. T o pay for the storage areas to be made available for student cars and a portion of the costs of supervision and enforcement of the plan insofar as it affects students, a fee of $15 a year will be charged student car owners. I must emphasize that the efficiency of the University staff, and the attractiveness of University employment, is affected by availability of parking space. It is a factor in staff morale and recruitment. The problem can be solved long range only by the provision of land and car storage facilities for which financing is not now available. Meanwhile, we hope the steps here proposed will help to resolve some of the present difficulties. T h e tentative recommendations of the Traffic and Parking Board have been submitted to the undergraduate Committee on Student Affairs and made available to the corresponding committees of the Graduate College, the College of Law, and the College of Veterinary Medicine. Open forums have been held for information and suggestions for the faculty and staff as well as for the students. Consideration has been given to the suggestions from these sources. On the basis of the report of the University Traffic and Parking Board, modified in consultation with a number of University officers, I recommend: A. That approximately 400 permanent parking spaces be constructed on University-owned land on sites approved by the Building Program Committee and recommended by the Physical Plant Department, at a cost approximating $180,000, subject to the following: 1. T h e above costs to be financed from borrowed funds and liquidated through charges to staff members. 2. Approximately 350 spaces in University designated parking lots, including those to be constructed, to be assignable and reserved for the exclusive use of faculty-staff members or car pools of such members upon payment of a fee of $60 a year. Assignment of space would be on a first-comefirst-served basis. 3. Income from fees to be pledged to liquidate the loan for construction of parking lots. 4. All present assignments of reserved parking space to be discontinued, except as follows: a. Areas posted for "Clinic" use (such as those provided for Physical Therapy, Speech, and Small Animal Clinic) which are to be used for outpatients only. b. Spaces reserved for University-owned departmental cars and/or visitor use only (such as at the Physics Building, Mumford Hall, Civil Engineering Hall, Illini Hall, Control Systems Laboratory, and Engineering Research Laboratory). c. General service areas (such as Administration Building, Illini Hall, Davenport Hall, and Engineering Research Laboratory) which are to be used in accordance with the posting. d. Spaces needed for the transaction of University business or to honor existing valid commitments, including cases of physical disability. The University may pay to this project rentals for such space.