Faculty, staff to pay more for parking

Faculty and staff will pay more to park in VCU-owned garages and lots beginning Dec. 1.

The parking rate will increase to $58 per month, up from $56.24, as part of the 2006-2007 university budget approved by the VCU Board of Visitors.

The people hit the hardest by the increase are VCU staff members who make minimum wage. A minimum-wage employee would have to work more than 11 hours just to pay for a monthly parking pass.

Many staff workers in the University Student Commons said they would rather park on the street than pay for a parking pass. The downside is that many of them have already received tickets as a result.

Other ways to get to campus

Ride your bike
Find a bike rack at www.usca.vcu.edu/offcampus/docs/Bike Parking.pdf

Ride the bus

A $50 VCU student transit pass with unlimited GRTC trips for one semester is available from Parking and Transportation Services.

Carpool or vanpool
Check out ridefinders.com and www.usca.vcu.edu/offcampus/alttrans.html for more information.

Walk

Rico Pender, assistant manager at the Compass Pointe Emporium at Shafer Court Dining Center, said he had not heard anything about the rate increase. Neither had his co-workers, he said.

Pender currently parks in one of VCU’s decks. He said he knows many people who pay for parking and that it’s a shame the rate is going up.

“It’s rough,” Pender said. “I can’t see it being a good thing, but I guess they need to raise the price for certain reasons.”

Emma Minor, assistant manager for VCU’s Parking and Transportation Services, said the parking fees pay for a lot of things.

“Cleaning, security and cashiers are included in the cost to keep the parking lots and garages running,” Minor said. “Your parking pass also includes assistance, like a jump start when your battery dies, and flat tire repair.”

The fees also pay for construction of parking facilities. “With all the new faculty, staff and students VCU is bringing in, we want to make sure there is enough room for people to park by building new decks to park in,” Minor said.

The university announced the rate increase through e-mail last month. Parking and Transportation Services also notified faculty and staff in the e-mail that their 2006 parking passes were about to expire.

Jonathan Tarr, a Commons worker, said he hadn’t heard of the rate increase. But he said he “read somewhere about how VCU Parking and Transportation wants you to update your information online so they can send you a new parking pass.”

The new pass will be valid through Sept. 30, 2007.

Minor said VCU instituted online renewal of parking passes because “our customers are very busy people.”

“We hope online renew will be more convenient to our subscribers and show that Parking and Transportation is keeping up with new technology,” she said.

VCU students who park in the decks and parking lots pay up to $155 a semester. During the fall semester, the pass is good from the first day of school until Dec. 31. That’s about $38 per month.

The daily rate for parking in a VCU deck is $3.25 for students and $5 for faculty and staff.

VCU offers alternatives to help alleviate the increase in parking rates. One option is to park in the decks that accept cash and pay only for the days you are on campus.

VCU employees can use payroll deduction to pay for parking on campus, she said.

“Full-time faculty and staff can also sign up for the payroll deduction, which is automatically taken out semi-monthly,” Minor said. “When they do that, it’s not taxed by the government.”