Angelina WagnerThe junior class held a meeting with students and administration to discuss the issue of parking around campus on Monday, Nov. 3.
The meeting was held in the Widener Center Lecture Hall. Director of Public Safety Charlie Schaffner, Vice President for Student Development Christine Lysionek and Director of Facilities Howard Holden were all in attendance.
Schaffner was questioned as to why it seems there are a large amount of freshmen students parking on Residential Boulevard. Schaffner was quick to respond that he personally approves any notes concerning why a freshmen must have a car on campus.
The first reason he stated was that the student may need the car for personal medical reasons, the second being financial reasons in which the student must work off campus while in school and the third is if the student is taking a class of campus at a location the shuttle does not go. According to Schaffner, he has only given 25 permits allowing freshmen to have their cars on campus.
Public Safety also said that a large reason there are parking issues is because a majority of the classes at Cabrini are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays, “We ticket every day of the week. Tuesdays and Thursdays we are a little relaxed though due to the amount of people on campus,” Schaffner said.
One solution that has been implemented is that the college will be required to hold 25 percent of its classes on Mondays and Fridays. This will help even out the amount of cars on campus.
Schaffner also stated that Public Safety has written tickets amounting to $30,000 so far this semester. This does not mean this is the amount paid by those being ticketed. The $30,000 includes offenses such as short-term guest parking, repeat student offenders without a registered vehicle, as-well-as tickets that have been appealed the students do not have to pay.
Holdern said that the parking on campus “Is a growing pains problem.” Lysionek said, “The long term solution for parking is to build a parking garage.” Garages though, according to Schaffner, are extremely expensive and each spot within the garage can cost $14,000-$20,000.
In order to have the car registration process go smoothly next year Public Safety plans on having the registration form onlinee. That way, students can access the form faster and then tickets will be given out the second week of school for those cars that are not registered.
Many students are probably asking why doesn’t the school just put down some cement and make more parking spaces. The solution isn’t that easy, according to Holden. “The Radnor Township watches us relatively closely.” Holden and his crew cannot put parking where ever they want because of the effect it can have on the flow of storm water on campus.
Dr. Nicholas Uliano, assistant professor of romance languages, raised the possibility of having paid parking for those faculty members who would be willing to do so. Schaffner said that the solution could be a possibility for the future, for both faculty and students, but that it could cost $150-$300 per parking spot for those who wanted to have a spot reserved for them.
Director of Student Activities Jason Bozzone brought up the idea that students who see cars that are parked illegally should be reported to Public Safety. Junior Stephanie Ciarrochi argeed, but said, ‘Public Safety must meet us halfway if we are going to be looking out for cars parked illegally.” Ciarrochi also brought up the fact that there is a handicapped spot that is rarely used in front of her house. She wouldn’t have a problem with the spot if her house was handicapped accessible, which according to her the house is not.
Junior class Vice President Megan Beauduy pressed for an answer as to what the college is doing in order to solve the parking problem. Holden said that Cabrini has hired an outside company to look at the entire campus to see where we can expand and build new lots. He was quick to point out that this process will take time and that patience will help while we await the results.
The Student Government Association will be working in the up-coming weeks to organize another follow-up meeting and get more feedback from students and faculty. Junior class president Ryan Norris said, “That’s the most important thing, it involves the entire campus, even the faculty, so everyone involved is invited to speak.”
Posted to the web by Angelina Wagner
