March 19, 2003
Rajiv Parikh
C/o School of Law
Rutgers University
Newark Campus
Dear Rajiv:
I am writing in response to your letter of March 10, 2003 to the Senate Executive Committee and copied to Provost Diner.
From time to time, the Campus does have the need to dedicate some of its precious parking resources for special events, like the dedication of the Berson Board Room in the Center for Law and Justice. We try not to make a habit of this because we do understand the disruption these temporary removals have on student life, and on faculty and staff morale. Unfortunately, given the nature of the Campus in the middle of the City, we have to dedicate these spaces in the morning (even though an event may be scheduled later in the day); otherwise the spaces will not be available at the required time.
You have raised some very legitimate questions, and I will respond to them in the order that you have listed them.
1) We do not control the streets in and around the Campus, but we do
have a good working relationship with the City administration and the City
police. As you know, both University Ave. and Washington St. are
main north/south thoroughfares, which pass right through the center of
the campus. The City would prefer that we keep the streets passable
for vehicular traffic, so we try not to obstruct the travel lanes, especially
during rush hours. We will do a better job of traffic control around
the decks, and will experiment with a “one out, one in” system beginning
on Monday, March 24, 2003.
2) We have allowed University vans to park in the Decks because there
are times when the vans return to the campus during evening hours or on
the weekends when the campus is less occupied. We will experiment
with the parking relocation of some of these vans into faculty/staff lots,
also beginning Monday, March 24, 2003, which will open up a few more parking
spaces for students.
3) We are becoming more aware of the acute shortage of student parking,
even during Monday - Thursday evenings. Several years ago, we instituted
a program whereby students can park in the Bradley Hall parking lot after
4:00PM. We will look into the possibility of doing the same thing
at the Washington St. lot across from CLJ. Of course, students will
still be required to pay the daily parking rate in place at that time.
However, in addition, we already have arrangements with several privately
operated parking lots in the area of the campus, like many other urban
universities in the country. Students can park in these lots on a
space available basis, and pay the Rutgers University rate of $2.75 per
day. For more information, please go to our parking website at http://nwkpolice.rutgers.edu.
4) Rutgers-Newark operates its parking and transportation program with
both in-house administrative staff and with a private parking vendor, Central
Parking. Central is responsible for the day-to-day management, operation
and maintenance of the parking lots and decks, within standards that we
set. We have found this to be the most cost effective means to deliver
this service in Newark, allowing us to charge below market rates for student
parking.
5) The allocation of handicapped parking spaces is determined by formula
and by the size of the parking lot, under guidelines provided in the Americans
with Disabilities Act. Frankly, by formula we actually need to assign
more parking spaces for persons with disabilities, but we do modulate the
actual number of spaces based on actual need in any given year. Please
be aware that the criteria for the availability of these spaces goes well
beyond whether a person is wheelchair bound.
6) We have attempted to think through the possibility of a parking
consortium in Newark over the years. However, it has failed at every
attempt because each institution suffers from the same problem –there simply
are not enough spaces available for any one institution’s use. Perhaps
the possible restructuring with NJIT and UMDNJ will have a more positive
impact on this thought process.
7) There can be a yearly or semesterly parking fee for commuting students,
as soon as a debit card option is available for Newark students.
We have recently hired a new campus card administrator, and would want
to have parking included in this new service as soon as the mechanics can
be arranged.
8) We have encouraged the City of Newark to increase the time available
on the parking meters around the campus. In fact, this past Fall
semester many of the one-hour meters around campus were increased to two-hour
meters, allowing our students to be able to attend at least one full class.
We had asked to increase the meters to three-hours (the City’s maximum),
and our request was denied.
9) We do have a parking enforcement program, and we will increase its
visibility. However, the security officers are the same ones who
provide security around campus, and we have placed a higher priority on
campus security over parking enforcement. We’ll see if we can better
balance these two requirements.
10) Apparently, the relocation of the Public Safety department from
Blumenthal Hall to the new Public Safety Headquarters created some administrative
issues with the departments concerned. That has been straightened
out, and I’m advised that appeal forms are now available in both the Public
Safety Headquarters and at the Photo ID and Permit Services window in Blumenthal.
11) From time to time, the campus has had a committee specifically
focused on parking and transportation issues. Right now, these issues
can be funneled to the group of student government presidents who meet
regularly with Campus Administration officials, including the Director
of Public Safety. The Public Safety staff are active e-mail users,
and you can communicate with them directly. Director Martin Roddini
can be reached on chmjr@andromeda.rutgers.edu, and Parking Administrator
Rivera can be reached on jimmyr@andromeda.rutgers.edu. In addition,
we will add a direct link to our Public Safety website to allow for direct
input.
12) Rutgers University owns all of the parking facilities on campus,
including both surface lots and parking decks. The exception is lot
511 at 185 Washington St., which we recently leased from the property’s
owner. As I indicated earlier, Central Parking is responsible for
the day-to-day management, operation and maintenance of the parking facilities
under standards created by Rutgers University.
I again want to express my deep regret at the unfortunate set of circumstances you encountered on March 10th. As a campus, we are engaged in a very active master planning process, and have included the addition of more parking facilities as a priority. However, like many other urban centers around the country, the parking demand typically well outstrips the available supply, and the cost of acquiring more land for this or other academic purposes continues to grow. We are blessed in Newark, however, with a very substantial transportation infrastructure, including a very healthy mass transit system, which is underutilized.
I would be happy to meet with you to discuss this matter further. Please call my Assistant, Jane Pfeiffer, on 973-353-5541 if you would like to do so.
Very truly yours,
Gene A. Vincenti
Associate Provost
Cc: Provost Steven Diner
Martin Roddini
Jimmy Rivera
Dr. Paul Panayatatos
Dr. Kathleen Scott