By Spenser Hickey
Transcript Correspondent
The parking meter initiative came one step closer to success during the Sept. 10 Wesleyan Counsel of Student Affairs meeting.
Public Safety Director Robert Wood said once WCSA had the funds, the meters would be ordered.
Sophomore Lauren Holler, co-chair of WCSA’s Residential Affairs committee, said they submitted a budget request for the funds during their full-body meeting on Sept. 11.
Wood said he hoped the meters would be installed within the next few months.
“We tried to get it done last year,” Wood said. “There were a lot of questions and concerns we needed to work through.”
Senior Anthony McGuire, president of WCSA, said the parking meter initiative is an uncompleted project from last year.
The parking meters were originally planned solely for Hamilton-William’s parking lot.
Since last winter, putting meters in dormitory parking lots has become part of the initiative’s goals.
Holler said Smith, Welch, Stuyvesant and Hayes resident halls are tentatively being considered as the lots that would receive meters.
Wood said these lots were the most congested.
Holler said her committee had received complaints from students last year who received tickets while only briefly parking in a lot without having the required permit.
“The idea is to give students a very easy, close place to park for a short time to drop something off or pick something up quickly,” said Wood.
The Department of Public Safety could have bought the meters itself, but Wood wanted the money deposited in the meters to go back to the student body.
He said he discussed this with Craig Ullom, vice president of Student Affairs, and together they came up with the idea of WCSA purchasing the meters instead.
“If WCSA would buy the meters they would get the money back,” Wood said.
He said this additional income could become an ongoing, though small, source of funding for WCSA.
Holler said a likely meter charge would be a quarter for 15 minutes, and the quarters would be collected and added to the Student Activity Fund.
According to WCSA minutes, the parking meters may also lead to more student jobs removing quarters from the meters; however this has yet to be decided.
“We figured only paying 25 cents to prevent getting a $20 ticket will help students,” Holler said.