UHCL, we have a parking situation

Parking permit problems ensued this semester when the new Parking Management Department (PMD) faced issues with software reconfiguration from their vendor, T2 Parking Systems.

On Sept. 4, ten days after classes started for the fall semester, parking permits went on sale, but the website shut down the next day because of credit card transaction errors. Because electronic purchasing was absent and buying permits in person was not an available option, PMD suspended the issuance of parking tickets until further notice.

On Oct. 9, PMD sent an email notifying students and employees that the website was working again and to buy their parking permits before Nov. 3, announcing that parking enforcement would begin five weeks before the close of the semester.

“I think it is unfair to charge students for less than six weeks of use,” said Holly Hood, anthropology major. “It was the department’s error, and I feel it is unfair that the students of UHCL have to ‘pay’ for their mistake.”

The Student Government Association (SGA) addressed this issue on Oct. 21 in an open forum with Harry Glass, parking operations supervisor, and Derrell Means, supervisor of facilities management and construction. Means told SGA attendees PMD will not reduce or discount prices because of the parking permit delay.

“If we don’t charge for this semester, we will lose half a million dollars,” Means said. “We do parking lot reconstruction during Christmas break, and this break is estimated to cost six hundred thousand dollars.”

The PMD staff currently consists of Glass, Means and one student employee. The PMD office is housed in the same location as the Police Department (PD). By the beginning of the spring semester, PD will be in a modular building by the Central Services building.

When the PMD was placed in the PD’s office, they closed the window where students previously had access to the police and where parking permits had been purchased. Means said he has no intentions of re-opening the window to offer parking permits. Chief Paul Willingham asserts purchasing permits exclusively online reduces the need for staff, long lines and eliminates cash handling.

“Not realizing that there needed to be some software reconfiguration after our initial start-up date, we did not anticipate the need for a back-up plan,” Glass said.

During the spring 2014 semester, PD examined qualified parking vendor bidders and chose T2 Parking Systems based on their exemplary criteria and their work with the two other UH campuses. UHCL PD started their partnership with T2 Parking Systems in May, and officially created PMD Aug. 11.

“Our goal live date was Aug. 13, but it was delayed because of software reconfiguration from the vendor [T2 Parking Systems],” Glass said in the SGA open forum. “Once the hiccups are done, it’ll be much smoother within a couple of months.”

One of the system hiccups was that PeopleSoft marked student workers solely as employees and gave the information to Glass to put into the system. Student workers were presented with ‘employee’ as their only option for parking permits, and as a result, some student workers were issued employee parking passes.

“There are not that many students with employee parking; it’s nothing the employees need to worry about,” Means said.

Even with the employee permits, some student workers choose to park in the student lot.

“I have an employee permit, but I still park in student parking,” said Robin Aleman, social work major and student worker for the Office of Admissions.

PD is no longer handling campus parking or the parking tickets. PMD inherited the office space and duties of parking.

“Transitioning parking away from PD has been on my agenda since day one,” Willingham said. “It’s an all encompassing collar of negativity. No one wanted to hear about safety on campus; they just wanted to talk about parking.”

Student Hawk Patrol will continue to enforce parking until PMD can afford to hire their own patrol. Fines for violations range from $30 to $75 depending on the violation, and all appeals will be dealt with online.

Glass was hired in late July and came from Rice University with previous parking management experience.

“When I first came to this office, I was surprised there was still a paper trail of tickets on campus,” Glass said. “I would ask for the Automatic Ticket Writer machine (ATW), and no one knew what I was talking about. Even in 1992 when I worked for Auraria Higher Ed Center in Denver, there was not a paper trail for tickets.”

UHCL students, faculty and staff speak up about the parking situation on campus. To join the conversation, fill out the comment form at the bottom of this page or connect with The Signal on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram using the hashtag #uhclparkingsituation.
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All videos taken by The Signal reporter Matt Walker.