Conversations Event provides forum for feedback

-- Jc Drobac

Metropolitan State University’s St. Paul Campus neighbors are miffed, but so are St. Paul Campus’ students who face the almost unavoidable need to pay higher parking fees—which have recently increased. These concerns and others prompted the first student-administration meeting to discuss the difficult parking situation affecting many.

Valerie Novak, student senator and director of public relations for the Student Senate, hosted the event on Wednesday, Jan. 18. It was centered on the parking issues affecting Metropolitan State University students, faculty, administration and staff and the St. Paul Campus’ community’s residents. Students and administration attended the event.

Said Novak about the meeting’s goal, "I feel this event was a great start in building a bridge in the huge communication gap between students and administration...There really needs to be a better way of informing students about issues that will affect them...email and direct mail are too cold and impersonal.”

Novak hopes that by initiating opportunities for face-to-face conversations about issues important to students will show that the Senate is invested in the students it represents. "When we hear about something that could and will affect them, then a Conversations Event will be set up....Conversations are only a stepping stone—a push forward in a positive and collective direction.”

A guest panel that included Dan Kirk, associate vice president of administrative affairs, Cathleen Brannen, vice president of finance, and Krishna Jha, student representative and president of Student Senate, was available to cover various concerns voiced from attendees. Thomas Maida, director of safety and security for Metropolitan State University, was also in attendance.

Some of the related topics included the possible implementation of students paying an established fee per credit for parking, the purchase of a parking permit which would offer parking at a discounted rate, and a fee charge added into the cost of tuition—like the technology fee. The present parking lot rates are a flat $2.50 to park in the St. Paul Campus’ lot, and $5 for Minneapolis’ Campus’ lot without a parking card. If students have a parking card, then the lot rate is $2.50 for the Minneapolis Campus as well. And with the parking card, you can come and go from the Minneapolis and St. Paul Campus’ and only pay $2.50 per day.

Other issues voiced included safety concerns of parking at the St. Paul Campus’ lot, such as the number of security cameras operating, proper lighting and car damage like dings or vandalism that has occurred.

All attending the meeting were in agreement about the importance of the negative impact the parking sprawl is having on the St. Paul Campus’ residents and community surrounding the university. Many residents’ home are unequipped with garages, making them often completely unable to park anywhere near their homes, which is creating undue hardship on our university’s much-appreciated community, especially during these harsh winter months that spawn personal safety issues with slippery pathways and less daylight hours in which to navigate.

Some students suggested the university cover the cost of parking, calling it a courtesy to them as students. But with the litany of statewide cuts to educational institutions, it is not a fiscally feasible solution. Others suggested building a multi-level ramp, but paying for the ramp would only serve to increase the cost of parking by implementing an additional fee, or rate increase, to cover the cost of the new structure.

Said Novak, who will continue to host forums that unite students and administration in search of a viable solution to the parking situation, "We want to work with the administration amiably” to come up with solutions. Notices of future meetings will be sent out to all students via their email accounts. Novak encourages each student with a voice, concern or suggestion to attend future meetings and be part of the solution.

Feeling proactive? Write Senator Valerie Novak at novakva@go.metrostate.edu.