Reporter Volume 25, No.8 October 21, 1993

By MARK WALLACE
Reporter Staff
In an effort to experience parking at UB from the perspective of
students, President William R. Greiner took to the streets last
Wednesday, viewing the parking situation with an undergraduate
student, Lisa Alessi, who had issued a public challenge in The
Spectrum for Greiner to find a parking spot on the North Campus at 10
a.m.
	"You're going to take us where you want to park," Greiner told
Alessi. "Let's try to define the problem, and come up with some
solutions."
	Beginning at 10 a.m., and accompanied by Associate Vice
President for Student Services Dennis Black, and William Regan,
director of conferences and special events, Greiner and Alessi drove
past all the lots on the North Campus, trying to determine which ones
were full, which lots had open spaces, and where students were waiting
in line to park.
	Free lots for faculty, staff and students on the south side of
the spine, from the front of Alumni Arena to the Old Stadium lot, were
all full, with a number of cars parked illegally on the curbs. Free
lots on the north side of the spine, and on the south side of
Ellicott, were also full, as was the Alumni Arena lot. Several of the
lots had lines of cars with students waiting to park; some students
were studying as they waited.
	"There are broad curbs in many of these parking lots," Greiner
noted. Although Black pointed out that cars parked in non-marked curb
spaces are currently ticketed, Greiner suggested it might be viable to
open more curb parking. "We could mark off more spaces for parking on
these curbs," he said.
	At the Hochstetter lot, which had the longest line of students
waiting for spots, Greiner got out and spoke directly to a number of
students sitting in their cars.
	Heather Kuczumanski, a sophomore, said that she waits for a
spot in Hochstetter every day. "I've been in line about half an hour,"
she told Greiner," and probably have about 20 minutes to go. I try to
allow myself 45 minutes to an hour."
	When asked by Greiner why she didn't park further out and take
the shuttle, Kuczumanski said, "I have late classes, and I don't like
to go out to the shuttle lots late. I don't want to walk out there at
night."
	Alessi added that another problem she had noted was that
faculty and staff park in various student lots when the Hochstetter
faculty and staff lot was still relatively empty.
	Jim Lockwood, a senior, said that "if you leave time between
classes, it's okay. The South Campus is much worse. But it's annoying
when faculty park in student lots."
	The only open spaces on either the north or south side of the
spine were the paid parking "A" lots, which in most cases were only
about half full. The new "A" lot on the far side of Alumni Arena was
almost empty, and Greiner mentioned the possibility that it could be
turned into a student-only lot.
	Greiner pointed out that a number of lots had been made into
paid "A" lots because the current benefits preserved clause of faculty
and staff contracts prohibits charges being attached to lots once they
have been opened as free lots. "Faculty and staff don't pay for
parking because of their collective bargaining agreement that they
will not pay without a contract renegotiation," he said.
	Despite the lack of parking elsewhere, there were numerous
spots in the lots on the north side of Ellicott, and at the Center for
Tomorrow and Crofts Hall lots, all of which involve taking the shuttle
to the spine.
	Greiner asked Alessi and Keith McShea, who was covering the
event for The Spectrum, why they would rather not take the shuttle.
McShea said he sometimes leaves campus at an hour after the shuttle
stops running, and pointed out also that "women students are leery of
the shuttle service." Alessi added that there was no way to regulate
who got on or off the shuttle, and that an attacker could simply ride
the bus and get off with others at one of the lots.
	When told that the shuttle ran roughly every 20 minutes, and
that it circled the spine on Putnam Way, Greiner suggested that
shuttle service be expanded. "I would like to see the shuttle run
every ten minutes," he said. "And maybe it should just run directly up
to Flint Circle and back." He added that, at night, it might be
possible for the shuttle service to take anyone who requested it,
directly to their cars. "I can't think of a solution that will not
require students to ride a bus or walk," he said.
	Alessi suggested that an improved shuttle, along with more
information about it, and about the outer lots that it would service,
might encourage students to think of the shuttle as a viable option.
	"I don't know how we fix parking unless we get a better stream
of revenue," Greiner said. "But students already pay $135 a year,
through the transportation fee. With more revenue, we could build
better lots and provide a shuttle service that works more efficiently.
	"I do recognize that there's a parking problem. There's tons
of surface parking, but not where people want it to be. My answer is a
better shuttle system. We're working on it, but I don't think there's
a quick and easy solution."