Scrambling around for quarters under the passenger seat of your hand-me-down car will be a thing of the past — at least that’s what Parking and Transportation Services hopes for the UA’s future.
This week’s ASUA meeting was hosted David Heineking, director of Parking and Transportation Services.
Heineking said Parking and Transportation’s plans to install credit card pay meters and hopes to install them by the end of the school year.
In addition to the new meters, Heineking addressed bike valet and many of the permits left for sale.
After Heineking’s presentation, ASUA began discussing its own restructuring plans.
With a $15 million budget in an almost completely private entity, which receives no state money, other than for its disability golf cart program, Parking and Transportation Services employs up to 70 students in its 150-member staff and are looking to update and expand for the coming year.
Although they lost about 40 to 50 parking spots, Parking and Transportation Services received lower demand for parking permits, including inside the usually packed Cherry Avenue garage, according to Heineking.
“”I think we’ve just gotten to the point where people don’t want to pay,”” said Heineking in the presentation. “”And that’s not just with parking permits, that’s with tuition, that’s with everything.””
In discussing the advent of the bike valet, Heineking noted the influx of between 11,000 and 14,000 bikes on campus every day, leading to the change and break-even philosophy of the service.
“”We aren’t looking to make any money,”” said Heineking of the bike service, which funds its mostly student workerss through the $10 punch cards.
He did note that “”there (are) a lot of reasons we need to raise money where we can”” for funding of new parking garages for the coming years, a benefit to the addition of credit card capable parking meters around campus.
The other main point of the ASUA meeting was the University Activities Board future emersion into the ASUA framework. The board, which partnered with ASUA for the successful concert featuring The Fray last year also hosted other campus events such as February 2009’s Katy Perry concert and March 2010’s Spike Lee speech, garners money from private sponsors as well as the Center for Student Involvement and Leadership and the Arizona Student Unions.
“”We are really excited about this change,”” said ASUA President Emily Fritze.
“”We will have financial resources at our hands (and) we’ll still have jurisdiction over our money,”” she later added.
Fritze noted finalities of how the new entity will be funded which would be hashed out over the next year with full integration coming for the 2011-12 school year.
ASUA wants to format the new University Activities Board, under a new name and new student staff, similar to the ZonaZoo structure with an executive board, which has worked well in the past.
