When Rice-Eccles Stadium parking disappears after Thanksgiving, few academic institutions on campus will be more affected than the College of Law, located just north of the stadium.
To make parking easier for law students during their examination period, the college will distribute day A passes to students on the days they have tests.
“It’s?a matter of trying to make something work for people we’re responsible for,” said Scott Matheson, dean of the College of Law. “And [I] hope that it’ll help everyone else as well. I just hope it all works. I have to give [Parking and Transportation Services] credit for entertaining suggestions.”
Faculty members can give the placards to their students during test week. The law school’s test period is from Dec. 11 to 21 (longer than the rest of the U’s test period from Dec. 10 to 14). Fewer people come to school on test days than on normal class days anyway.
“We have not notified others [besides the law school] on campus,” said Alma Allred, director of parking services. “If other faculties get a hold of us, they can do it too.”
Matheson also mentioned a park-and-shuttle across the street from the tennis lots on Guardsman Way, which would drop passengers off at the Marriott Library. The shuttle would put law, chemistry and dance students within “reasonable proximity” of their classes, he said.
The College of Law has formed an internal transportation committee, which?in addition to exploring various parking options?is an information resource for students for different modes of transportation.
“The hope is, ultimately?if we can get through all this?that long- term commuting habits will be changed in the direction of taking less pressure off of the parking lots and more in favor of carpooling and mass transit,” Matheson said.
No other faculties seem to be biting at the test-day A Pass morsel that parking services is offering, although colleges across campus are preparing for the impending parking nightmare in different ways?even if it’s just gritting their teeth and closing their eyes.
Engineering?north campus
To answer the question, “What is the College of Engineering doing about parking?” Dean Gerald Stringfellow “just sort of laughed,” said spokeswoman Dana Robison.
Parking next to the Merrill Engineering Building will not be closed, so students will only be affected by overflow from the other side of campus, she continued.
“We have a very large lot [which] is not going to be affected until the actual Games,” Robison said. “Students shouldn’t care too much.”
Fine arts?south campus
The College of Fine Arts is taking no specific action, other than trying to keep people informed about lot closers, said Associate Dean Steve Roens, and “hoping that people will take TRAX when it becomes functional.”
Humanities?central campus
Organizing a finals-week parking solution would be more difficult for the College of Humanities?which consists of six departments, two centers, the writing program and 4,000 students?than for the “tightly organized,” 400 student law school, said Christian Anderson, humanities assistant dean. Although humanities won’t be as affected as law, it will still take a parking hit.
The A lot directly east of LNCO, which houses humanities, will become a residence lot when students evicted from Heritage Commons in mid-December descend upon lower campus.
“We are strongly encouraging departments to use the transit system,” he said. “There are a lot of people that are so comfortable with using the car they never really investigate how easy it is to use the bus. [The Olympics] might be the catalyst?for people to really investigate how easy it is to get on campus using UTA.”
Anderson already comes to work on the bus.
Education?south campus
The College of Education loses the parking lot to its immediate south only on the rehearsal days for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
“There’s no school those days, and the staff is off. So it’s not going to be as huge an issue,” said Kandace Steadman, development director for the college.
Spillover from other closed lots will affect education parking, however, and the staff has talked about using alternative forms of transportation?walking, TRAX and so forth?but the college has not formally organized anything.
“Everyone is on the honor system,” she said. “I don’t know if I’m confident that we’ll be OK, but I think that the parking lot that we use?is not going to be impacted as long.”
Architecture?south campus
Dean of the Graduate School of Architecture Bill Miller laughed at the impending parking problem. “It’s okay?I have a reserve space in a lot that’s not designated to be consumed,” he said.
To make parking easier for graduate architecture students, the school is end loading Spring Semester, offering more second-session classes, at which point the Olympics will be over.
“It doesn’t help our undergrads,” Miller said. “One of the real problems we have, with the kind of shutting down of lots, there’s not much we can do?I would hope our students would begin using light rail.”
The lot behind the Art and Architecture building is not scheduled to be closed.