To the Editor:
I am writing in response to various opinions expressed regarding parking at RPI, both in The Poly and elsewhere.
One issue is the repeated quoting of parking rates at other schools. Rates at other schools, especially when they are hand-picked, seem irrelevant unless there is an impact on parking at RPI—like maybe if we charge too much folks will try to park at BU or Cornell? I found that HVCC charges $27 for parking, while Russell Sage charges a “nominal fee.” Certainly, comparing parking at RPI to parking at other Troy colleges is a fairer comparison. A look at other capital district private colleges reveals that Union College charges $15 and Siena charges $10. According to the minutes of the February 26 meeting of the Parking Review Board, Vice President Rounds made a presentation that indicated that there would be no commuter student parking fee in order to encourage the use of the Houston Feild House parking lot. When considering the inconvenience of parking at the Field House and what other local colleges charge for parking, it seems that this policy should not have been changed.
Another issue is that it boggles my mind that students can walk around the Union wirelessly connected to the Internet, but there is not adequate parking. It is kind of like inviting guests over to watch the Super Bowl on your wide screen television, and then telling them the rest room is a tree in the backyard. It really seems to be a misallocation of priorities.
What is most frustrating is that after the construction, including that of the parking garage, is completed, the parking situation may not even keep up with planned growth. The current construction has eliminated several hundred parking spaces. With future growth from sources such as increased faculty hires already in progress, increased doctoral students as called for in The Rensselaer Plan, what I assume will be an increase in faculty, staff, and students who will occupy the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies and the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, and lastly parking permits issued to local residents, it appears that the capacity of the parking garage will be used up and then some. This is, of course, unless commuter students remain far away from the main campus permanently, although these inconveniences were billed as “temporary.”
It seems like the current plans are not going to be effective in improving parking at RPI. I would suggest that the time, money, and effort expended in placing people at numerous parking entrances as well as by public safety issuing tickets would be better spent working towards improved parking capacity. I would also suggest that unless there is still time to increase the parking garage capacity that we begin to plan another way to add parking capacity as soon as possible. I was an undergraduate here—BSME ’83—and parking was fair then; last year it was poor, this year it is worse especially for commuters who don’t have a door to door driver, and will be even worse with anticipated future growth. Lastly, since it seems that some campus lots are somewhat underutilized, a plan for allowing more use of these lots should be developed. I understand that all groups may not be accommodated and those that are not may feel slighted, but that is already the case with the treatment of commuters now. Just because these unused spots cannot accommodate everyone is no reason to leave them unused.
James Burnes
DSES GRAD
