 Expanded
Parking Highlights New Campus Plan
Students will have more parking
spaces to choose from this fall thanks to an overhaul of the
parking rules and regulations undertaken last year.
Following the formulation of
an ad hoc Parking Rules and Regulations Committee, Paul Ominsky,
director of public safety, updated the campus’ policies
with an eye toward improving and clarifying the college’s
parking situation.
Many of the new regulations became
effective on September 1, while the remainder will be phased
in during the next 10 months.
With the new regulations in place,
Ominsky hopes to reduce the number of parking tickets issued,
he says. “I know it is hard to believe, but I would
be happy if our officers never write another ticket,”
he said. “My goals for the ad hoc Parking Committee
were to create parking rules and regulations that made sense
and were clear. If we were able to do that, then perhaps Public
Safety would not need to issue as many parking tickets.”
Most notably, the new policy
has expanded student parking spaces available, adding 100
spaces on the campus perimeter near the riding stables. Those
spaces are available to students for $25 for the entire academic
year. Also, several spaces have been painted on Paradise Road,
which will be available only for students with parking decals.
The parking lot off of Mandelle
Road (near the Quadrangle) has been converted from staff to
student-only parking.
And in working with the Physical
Plant, a plan was devised to increase the number of usable
spaces in the parking garage during snow storms.
The parking lottery, which had
become increasingly ineffective, has been changed to a graduated
registration system according to students’ year at Smith.
Beginning September 12, seniors can register their cars. As
of September 14, juniors may also claim parking decals. And
on September 19, remaining decals will become available to
sophomores. As always, parking decals are not available to
first-year students.
A Parking Appeals Committee of
three members, including a student, will hear cases regarding
parking fines.
In January, parking fines will
increase and a limit will be applied to the number of violations
students may accrue in one academic year.
To download a copy of the new
regulations, consult the public safety Web site at http://www.smith.edu/pubsafety/.
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