Despite issuing 49,734 parking tickets in the 2002-2003 academic year, parking services needs more. Not necessarily more tickets, but more money per ticket.
The Ball State Board of Trustees last month approved construction of an $8.5 million parking garage, which will provide 600 spaces for students, faculty and staff. To pay for the new structure, trustees approved increases in parking fees and fines, some of which will take effect this fall. The McKinley Parking Structure will be located south of the new Music Instruction Building on the east side of McKinley Avenue.
The new fees and fines will also fund expenses for existing parking facilities, Thomas Kinghorn, vice president for business affairs was quoted as saying in a written statement. The trustees released a five-year schedule showing incremental vehicle registration fee increases. Annual student vehicle registration will increase from $40 to $60 in fall 2004 and then $5 per year through 2007.
Gene Burton, director of public safety at Ball State, said the university's parking system is a user-based system.
"The people who use the parking system pay for the parking system," he said. "I wouldn't want to see people who do not use parking pay for it."
Randy Hyman, associate vice president for student services and dean of students, formed a parking task force last fall. As the DAILY NEWS reported on April 24, the parking task force recommended to increase parking fines. It did not make specific recommendations about increasing fees. Hyman said the trustees agreed with the need to increase parking fines.
"We looked at that possibility prior to that task force being appointed," he said.
Hyman said he is pleased with the decision to increase the fees. He said the trustees were able to give a lot of notice on the fee increases; they will not take place until a year from this fall.
Regular violators of parking regulations, however, may not be so pleased.
The average charge for parking at an expired meter is near $20 among state universities in Indiana; Ball State's fee has been $5 and will be $10 in the fall. Parking violators will have a few extra days to pay parking fines. Current policy allows seven days to pay; beginning in the fall, violators will have 10 days to pay. However, all fines increase by $10 after 10 days. So an unpaid $10 expired meter violation will cost a student $20 after ten days if unpaid.
Gene Burton said the basic premise of parking fines is to deter parking violations, not to make money. However, revenue collected from parking fines goes into the same vehicle facilities fund as does revenue from vehicle registration fees.
"Parking costs money to operate," he said. Ball State's parking service expenses include the free shuttle-bus service as well as maintenance on the lots and garages.
Burton said other universities might use money collected from general student fees to pay for parking.
IPFW does just that. In fall 2003, all IPFW students will pay $4.10 per credit hour, regardless of whether they park on campus or not, according to a spokeswoman in their parking services office.
Purdue University will increase its parking fees for the first time in 32 years, according to its Web site. IUPUI, which offers the most expensive parking among those surveyed, also offers free parking and shuttle service between the campus and nearby Bush Stadium.
In 2001-2002, Ball State collected $1.02 million in parking fees and permits, according to information provided by the controllers office. Parking enforcement billed another $479,526 in violations; however, assistant controller Steve Scherschel said not all of that amount will be collected because not all parking violators pay their fines.
Hyman said raising parking fines is designed to be a deterrent to people who illegally park or do not follow parking policies. Nancy Wray, systems coordinator for Ball State's public safety, said her staff of parking service employees does not have quotas to meet for the number of tickets they issue.
"We know where they are but not how many [tickets] they issue," she said.
Last semester, the parking task force held an open forum, which only ten students attended. Despite the low turnout, student task force member Anita Brown was quoted by the DAILY NEWS as saying the students won't like the task force's recommendations.
Jim Lowe, who heads the parking task force and also serves as Ball State's director of facilities assessment and engineering, said the university is creating a Web site that will allow anyone who uses on-campus parking to leave feedback. He said the low turnout at the parking forum last semester was probably because of time constraints.
"Instead of holding a meeting in some room, where you get one hour or two hours to respond to these recommendations, it will be ongoing," Lowe said. "That is our way to provide a forum. We truly want input."
Lowe said the parking task force will use the feedback from the online forum to hone its long-term recommendations. He expects the site to be up and running within the next two weeks.
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