The campus community has two more opportunities to voice its opinions on the revision of Eastern’s current parking system.

An open forum will be held from 9 to 10 a.m. today in Buzzard Hall Room 1501. Another forum will also be held from 3 to 4 p.m. Tuesday in the same location.

Comments can also be submitted to univplan@eiu.edu by 5 p.m. on Nov. 14.

“It’s important to me to know what people’s reactions and comments are before coming to any conclusion,” President Bill Perry said.

Proposed actions, as stated in Perry’s campus-wide e-mail sent Oct. 30, include:

Making parking part of the university’s Master Plan

Developing a zone parking system for faculty/staff and students

Increasing parking fees by $20 for 2009-2010 and by $10 for every consecutive year

Adopting formal guidelines for special event parking

Increasing lot coverage and revising ticket costs to encourage compliance with parking regulations

The proposed actions did not include a parking structure on campus, as it was not financially supported at the time.

All changes would take effect in the 2009-2010 school year.

The proposed actions may be modified based on the comments received.

After the feedback and comments come in on the proposed actions, Perry said he will then meet with the vice presidents to make some final decisions.

Perry said he hopes to have an e-mail sent before Thanksgiving Break outlining the final actions to be taken.

“Once the proposed actions become decisions, then we’re going to have to follow up in terms of implementing those decisions through the usual channels and operations of the university,” Perry said.

Perry said the proposed action on the zone parking system would take some careful study.

“That’s an item that really has to be looked at carefully over a fairly extensive period of time,” he said.

Patricia Poulter, professor and chair of the department of student teaching and clinical experiences, will moderate the forums.

Her role will be to hear what people have to say and report it back to the president, she said.

“The only thing I can tell you is that the president has urged everyone to read the results of the past forums and e-mail suggestions, and this is the opportunity for people to comment upon his latest e-mail,” Poulter said.

These forums will be the third opportunity for people, except new students, to participate in the parking system revision process.

“It’s important to me that all these opportunities have been provided so then we can get an informed decision as possible about actions,” Perry said.

The original recommendations on changing the parking system were made after a survey was sent out to the campus community by the Council of University Planning and Budgets.

The survey got information and opinions on what people saw as needs or issues with the current parking system.

After the results of the survey, two forums were held in September to get more feedback.

The feedback from those recommendations then influenced the proposed actions.

“I know that whatever decision we make they’re not going to be unanimously agreed to by everyone on campus, but by the same token, everyone’s had plenty of opportunity to let us know what they think,” Perry said.

Comment:

You can give feedback by attending either of the open forums:

9 to 10 a.m. today, Buzzard Hall Room 1501

3 to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Buzzard Hall Room 1501.

You can also submit comments to univplan@eiu.edu. Deadline for comments is Friday.

Emily Zulz can be reached at 581-7942 or at eazulz@eiu.edu.