A variety of issues were raised during Eastern’s first parking forum Tuesday. Topics ranged from the cost of a parking garage to accommodating motorcyclists.

“I don’t know how we can possibly satisfy everyone,” said Pat Fewell, former chair of the Council on University Planning and Budgets. “That is going to be a real task.”

Fewell moderated the forum, which is one of two forums taking place this week.

Management instructor Dave Arseneau raised the importance of having a parking garage on campus.

“Even if we are fighting major money problems.I think Eastern should figure out a way to accommodate external visitors,” he said.

A subcommittee of CUPB assessed Eastern’s parking situation during last spring. CUPB sent recommendations to President Bill Perry in early August on how to improve the parking situation on campus.

One of those findings showed that people do support a parking garage on campus, and are willing to pay between $100 to $150 in fees to support the construction of a garage.

Without additional funding, CUPB found that there would be a 200-year payback on the structure.

CUPB recommended additional funding options should be researched, if a garage is going to be built on campus.

Arseneau said the university should gather additional research and find how other area-universities funded parking garages.

Fewell said the idea of adding a parking garage stemmed from seeing parked cars not being moved for days in certain lots.

She added CUPB’s recommendations were broad for a purpose.

“We tried to be very generous with our recommendations because I didn’t want to hamstring the administration,” she said.

Mark Hudson, director of Housing and Dining Services, brought up the issue of making students park farther away from campus in order to allow faculty to park closer.

He said the university has to be careful when choosing to establish parking zones for students.

Students make decisions on where to live based on where they can park because it is convenient for them, Hudson said. If students are forced to park farther away, more students might choose to live at off-campus locations, which would have a ripple effect for the university, he added.

Another person who attended, but left before the forum ended said Eastern is unique compared to other universities in that the university does not charge students through meter parking.

She said meters generate money for a university and it would increase the availability of parking spots.

Fewell said a lot of underclassmen students liked the idea of non-metered parking and even said it was one of the reasons they decided to attend Eastern.

Fewell added given students’ response to the current system, the university probably could not go back on the issue and institute meter parking.

Hudson also brought up the issue of accommodating students and faculty who ride motorcycles or scooters to campus.

He said more people are using them because it is convenient and additional parking spaces for motorcycles and scooters should be addressed.

Fewell said only 50 people responded to a survey CUPB sent out last spring, saying they drove a motorcycle to campus.

But most of those people said it was difficult to find a place to park their motorcycle, Fewell added.

“I think people had points they wanted to make and had the opportunity to vocalize it in public,” Fewell said of Tuesday’s discussion.

About 20 people attended the forum; almost all of them were faculty. The second forum is at 4:30 p.m. today in the Physical Science Building, Room 2120.

Stephen Di Benedetto can be reached at 581-7942 or at sdibenedetto@eiu.edu.

The Eastern women’s soccer team has struggled offensively so far this season. In four road match, the Panthers have only scored one goal.

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Dave Arseneau, an instructor in the school of business, talks about his decades of experience with parking on campus during Tuesday afternoon’s public forum on campus parking in the Buzzard Hall auditorium. (Eric Hiltner / The Daily Eastern News)

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