Many students wonder why they have to pay for parking, according to Parking Manager Richard Kirkendall. He said student parking fees do not cover the costs associated with maintaining and operating parking at Sinclair Community College, a fact confirmed by Business Services Director Jeff Miller.
“Sinclair’s been very concerned with containing parking expenses for students,” Miller said. “The expense that students pay does not offset the costs of parking.”
Miller said the annual budget for parking fluctuates between $100,000 and $700,000 based on the scheduled maintenance intended for that year.
“We do project costs, but costs are very volatile based on construction costs, which are typically driven by construction material expenses,” Miller said. “Therefore it is necessary to reassess our projections on an annual basis.”
Miller said parking costs include maintaining the garage and restriping lots as well as providing security, police and shuttle services. He said the discount students receive when purchasing an RTA bus pass in the bookstore is also a parking cost.
The department is always looking at ways to improve parking efficiency, Miller said. In December students were invited to be a part of a pilot program that would offer them free parking for the month of January. Miller said that hundreds of students responded with interest in the program, but only 24 came to the office to receive passes.
In addition to the pilot program, Sinclair hosts a parking survey every year, according to Miller.
“Sinclair is always interested in gathering information related to parking services through the annual survey,” Miller said. “I would encourage students to keep an eye out for the e-mail survey in March.”
Miller said there has been both positive and negative feedback about parking over the last five years.
“Feedback that we’ve received has been positive in that we’ve provided discounted bus pass sales, shuttle bus services as well as an active presence through the Sinclair Police Department to manage traffic flow,” he said.
Most negative feedback has been related to parking convenience, Miller said.
“We don’t turn people away because there’s no parking space,” Miller said. “It’s just not the ideal space that they would like to have.”
Both Miller and Kirkendall said they are open to receiving feedback about Sinclair’s parking situation.
“If it’s something that can be fixed, we’ll fix it. If it’s beyond our control, we pass it on (to business services),” Kirkendall said.
Questions, concerns, ideas and feedback can be emailed to parking@sinclair.edu. Parking payment information can be found here, and interactive maps can be downloaded from Sinclair’s parking department here.