Parking Services announces new fees

Campus Parking Services has announced it will hike the price of parking permits for the 2005-2006 academic year.

The cost of all non-reserved parking permits for students will rise 4 percent ($1 or $2 more per year, depending on the type of permit purchased) while the cost of non-reserved blue permits for faculty and staff will climb 8 percent ($6).

Those purchasing reserved parking spaces, however, will see much more substantial increases.

Yellow or orange reserved permits for students will jump about 26 percent to $382 starting this summer.

Red/blue permits reserving parking spaces for faculty and staff on weekdays between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. will increase about 29 percent to $561. Red/blue permits reserving spaces at all times for faculty and staff will increase about 26 percent to $642.

A survey of universities across Illinois and the Mid-American Conference found that more than half of those schools do not allow – or severely restrict – the purchase of reserved parking spaces. Among the rest, the new price at NIU for a reserved blue spot is slightly more than the average of $498.

All of the increases were unanimously recommended by the Campus Parking Committee (which includes faculty, staff and students) and approved by Bob Albanese, associate vice president for Finance and Facilities, in consultation with Eddie Williams, executive vice president and chief operating officer.

“We haven’t raised parking fees since the 1999-2000 academic year, and our costs have been increasing every year. We had simply reached a point where the committee felt it
appropriate to review the fees and concluded that an increase was necessary,” said Norm Jenkins, chair of the campus parking committee.

The additional revenue generated by the increases can be used in several ways, Jenkins said. Some of the money could improve parking enforcement efforts, an area where Campus Parking Services has been chronically short-handed for some time.

“Better enforcement will improve service for all permit holders,” he said.

The new revenue also can improve the upkeep of existing parking lots and support the paving of others, Albanese said.

“In the not-too-distant future, we would like to pave Lots X and W, which are located just north of Annie Glidden Road. We would also like to improve the lighting in those two lots, which provide parking for various student, faculty and staff permit holders,” Albanese said. “With projects like those on the horizon, it seemed an appropriate time for a small increase.”

While examining the price structure for parking permits, the committee also looked closely at the issue of reserved parking on campus and its effect on efficiency, concluding that adjustments had to be made.

“When you have a large number of reserved spots, it makes your entire inventory less efficient. For instance, currently, better than one in five blue permit spaces (22 percent) is reserved, and that is just too many,” Jenkins said. “When we studied similar universities in the state and across the Mid-American Conference, we didn’t find any other schools close to that amount. Several didn’t offer reserved parking of any kind.”

To address that situation, the committee recommended a moratorium on the sale of reserved parking spaces in blue lots until only 15 percent of the total pool is reserved. That will free up 184 parking spaces.

“All those who currently have reserved parking will be allowed to retain those parking spaces for as long as they wish to pay the going rate,” Jenkins said. “We suspect, however, that some people will choose not to pay the additional cost, which will help us get closer to our goal of 15 percent. The remainder will be recouped as people retire or leave the university. As that happens, the increased number of spaces in the general parking pool should benefit everyone.”

To lessen the impact of the increases, the committee also recommended that employees now be allowed to stretch payment for parking permits over 10 pay periods rather than the current six.

4-11-05