Decrease in demand for parking

By Mary Georgevich

Despite an increase in students, Campus Safety has sold approximately 100 less on-campus parking permits this year compared to last year, and the university has no plans to expand spaces for next year.

Charles Arolla, director of Campus Safety Services, said he's not sure what caused the drop. "It may be that the freshman class last year discovered that you don't really need a car when you come to Santa Clara," he said.

Joe Sugg, assistant vice president of university operations, said there are no plans to increase parking next year, especially considering the smaller number of permits sold this year.

This year's freshmen class, which has 1,353 students, will be eligible to purchase on campus permits next year as sophomores.

"Who knows what it's going to be like next year with the largest class in Santa Clara's history enrolled this year?" Arolla said.

Students living on campus get a C or CW permit, while commuter students purchase E permits. Arolla said there are about 275 C spots and 88 CW spaces, and at least 600 E spots on campus, although he did not have an exact number.

Students living in the Swig, Dunne, McLaughlin and Walsh Residence Halls are issued CW permits.

This year the CN permit was introduced to accommodate students living in Nobili Hall.

Sobrato residents receive numbered D permits in the garage underneath the dorm.

In the lottery, seniors are given priority, then juniors, and sophomores receive what's left. "In years past, there's been an overabundance of sophomores on the west campus," Arolla said. "So a number of them have been, as a result of the lottery, issued C permits and not CW permits. That wasn't the case this year."

The lottery closed Sept. 20 for all on-campus students.

Arolla said that even though less permits were sold, he does not believe there are any plans to issue permits to first year students.

"I can't say that we're going to make any additional parking spaces available to freshmen this year," Arolla said.

Freshman, Hilary Leffler, a McLaughlin resident, said she applied for a permit to get to a job off campus but was denied. "They said there was a review panel, and I wasn't qualified to use one," she said.

"My parents have a real estate business and I have to be there for succession meetings," she said.

Leffler said she plans on keeping her car at school and parking it on Lafayette Street, which is one of the few 24 hour parking areas near campus. "It's nice to have it if my mom needs me to come home," she said. Leffler lives an hour and a half from campus.

Some students will park off campus instead of purchasing a permit, Arolla said. "One of the issues that has been with us for a number of years is students that park off campus," he said. "They park in the neighborhoods and they take up available parking for residents who live nearby."

He said the city tries to avoid that problem by having time-limit parking around the university. "The city wants turnover of vehicles," Arolla said. "They don't want vehicles parked on the street for long periods of time."

Contact Mary Georgevich at (408) 554-4546 or mgeorgevich@scu.edu.