LETTER: UFH parking fees are now more fair

Xiomara Levsen’s July 17 article, “Parking fees for University and Schilletter Villages cause confusion with residents,” and the Daily’s July 22 editorial, “Students need full truth of policies,” do not accurately convey the change in the method of collecting parking fees at University Family Housing. We would like to clarify: residents of UFH are not paying a new fee for parking this year. In past years, a parking permit fee was assessed and included in the rent of Schilletter Village and University Village apartments. However, every student was being charged for a permit as part of his or her rent, and it was deemed inefficient for the Department of Residence to continue to collect the money and then pass it along to the Department of Public Safety. This former method was also unfair to residents who did not own cars as those individuals were paying for permits they did not need. The DOR, UFH Council and DPS’s Parking Division began working toward an alternative arrangement last fall.

The new system, approved by the UFH Council, eliminates the middleman and simply asks residents who would like parking permits to pay DPS directly. The Department of Residence subsequently decreased the rent at University Family Housing. The increase in room rates for 2003—2004 is lower than it would have been had the DOR continued to collect parking fees.

DPS and the Department of Residence made reasonable efforts to communicate the nature of this policy change to residents.

We both met with the UFH Council in October 2002 to discuss options for transfer of the responsibility and the fee. In January 2003, Doug Houghton sent the UFH Council mayor a four-page memo outlining the proposed changes and seeking input. In February 2003, Randy Alexander met with the UFH Council to review the proposed rate structure. The rate meeting was publicized to UFH residents, who were encouraged to attend and provide feedback. On May 14, Doug Houghton received an e-mail from the UFH Council mayor, acknowledging the Council’s acceptance of the changes. “We are pleased with how it looks and welcome its implementation,” Mayor Ryan Bakke states in the response.

The Department of Residence conveyed the change in parking procedure by amending its Terms and Conditions of the Contract, which all residents must read and to which all residents must agree prior to signing a contract for housing at UFH. The UFH staff also included information about the parking change in the March 2003 and May 2003 issues of the UFH Commentor, a monthly newsletter for residents.

The Department of Residence wishes to keep UFH an affordable place to live for ISU students. In the DOR’s efforts to keep fees fair and rates lower, it is unfortunate some residents feel the university is being unfair.

We are sorry if some residents did not understand or find the information accurate as it was communicated to them. As you can see, we attempted to communicate this policy change in a clear and consistent manner. We will be available to answer any questions students may have about this fee at a Town Meeting 7 p.m. Thursday in the Frederiksen Court Community Center private dining room. We invite all residents who have questions to attend this meeting so that we might be able to work toward gaining mutual understanding on this issue.