BY MATT BLEIMAN

In print | Published May 1, 2008

The parking committee, which evaluates applications for parking permits, has been recently restructured to increase transparency and work more efficiently. Assistant Director of Student Life Kelly Wilcox ’97 will be serving as the chair of the parking committee this year. She explained that the committee felt there was a need for clearer guidelines in the ranking and criteria used to award parking permits.

Associate Dean of Student Life Myrt Westphal explained that the committee used to be run by students and staff and that permits were given out based on seniority. A couple of years ago, Student Council decided that they wanted to have more control over the distribution of parking permits so they made a parking committee. “It was never really fully peopled and it ended up being one or two people making all of the decisions,” said Westphal.

In the past year, Student Council had to rescind all its previous decisions and start again. The focus of the committee changed from seniority to tasks that require cars on campus. “If you were in a group and provided transportation for the group, that was given higher precedence than seniors,” Westphal said.

Seniors who had been waiting for permits found that they were taken by underclassmen. Westphal said, “We found that it was time to review the parking situation and design a new committee.”

There is an understanding on the committee that not everyone will be satisfied because there are not enough permits for everyone who requests one. Wilcox said that she believes that by making the process clearer and more transparent to the student body there will be less frustration with the process. “As long as there is an understanding of the process that is seen as fair and collaborative then I think the frustration is going to be reduced,” Wilcox said. “My goal is not to make everyone happy but to create an efficient and fair process to be as open and transparent as I can.”

The committee also wanted to expand the range of voices serving the committee. RAs and members of the administration now serve on the committee. In addition to Wilcox, Westphal and Terri Narkin of Public Safety are serving on the committee as well.

According to Louis Rosenberg ’09, a former member of the committee, the committee previously only consisted of Terri Narkin and two student members. “It became clear that the workload of processing hundreds of applications was more demanding than appropriate for two students, and Student Council members increasingly shouldered much of the committee’s responsibility,” Rosenberg said. “The committee had to evaluate applications for veracity as well as weighing factors such as seniority and importance of extracurricular and personal obligations.” This led to the expansion of the committee to include deans and RAs.

“Terry Narkin, who has been with the college over twenty years, can invoke the institutional history and guide us on how to best pursue the process,” Wilcox said. “I think she had the greatest vantage point of why changes and improvements need to be made and was instrumental in meeting with the planning session last fall to have a brainstorming session where students, administrators, and staff evaluated where the process had been and where it needed to go.”

The result of the brainstorming was the creation of a new application for permits and more appointments to the committee.

Having a larger committee also gives more insights into parking permit applications. “By having a larger committee we have a sense of who is stretching the truth on their application and whose needs are legitimate,” Westphal said. She explained that they are now requiring signatures from supervisors to make sure people are making legitimate claims.

This year’s application for a parking permit explains that, “factors considered first are special needs (disability or medical), seniority and organizations needing a car (1 per group). Secondary factors include commuting, jobs, internships, family needs and/or religious observances.”

The committee will be meeting for the first time on Monday to evaluate each proposal based on this criteria. Wilcox said, “I think in the past this criteria was more ambiguous — it was known by the committee but not necessarily by the applicants so now were hoping the applicants understand the criteria that is being used to judge their applications.”

To accommodate students who do not have cars on campus, the committee looked at the parking situation holistically and decided to bring Philly Car Share on campus.

“We want every student to be able to have access to transportation and we feel that as an institution if we can’t provide it through parking spaces we hope to do it through other venues,” Wilcox said. The committee is also looking at other options for subsidizing rail travel and looking into sustainability options to keep the campus green.

This year is the just the first step. Wilcox hopes that the committee will continue to make changes and grow and said that the committee is open to suggestions and feedback regarding any change.

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