Parking fee increases approved

Parking fee increases approved

BY LINDSEY FIELDER
Rice News staff

Beginning July 1, Rice University faculty and staff will see an increase in parking rates of up to 5 percent.

New rates recommended by the parking committee were approved by Rice President David Leebron in April. The president also endorsed a new parking category allowing graduate students to park closer to buildings and labs after 5 p.m. and on weekends.

In the coming fiscal year, faculty and staff will pay annually:

• $410 for premium lots (Abercrombie, Facilities and Engineering, North, Keck and Campanile), a $20 increase

• $443 for the Lovett Lot, a $23 increase

• $655 for the Central Campus Garage, a $30 increase

• $315 for close-in lots (Alice Pratt Brown, Hess Court and the Greenbriar Annex), a $15 increase

• $210 for commuter lots in the large West Lot (between Rice Stadium and the Shepherd School of Music), a
$10 increase

• $250 for the South Stadium lot, a $70 increase due to its proximity to offices and facilities for its contractors

• $134 for the Greenbriar Lot on the far side of the stadium, a $4 increase.

These rates will again be reduced by 25 percent for those employees who make less than $25,000 per year (on a full-time equivalent basis), use payroll deduction to pay for parking and park in the lots west of the Shepherd School.
In response to feedback, graduate students can now pay $60 for a limited-access permit, called “Night Owls.” The discounted parking option will allow access to premium lots after 5 p.m. and on weekends. During the day, these graduate students can park in the Greenbriar Lot.

Another new parking option will be available to Rice alumni. For a fee of $75 per year, alumni can park in visitor lots after 5 p.m. and all day on weekends.

Undergraduate students parking in the college lots will pay $410 this year, an increase of $20. A surcharge will continue to be assessed on students who bring cars to campus. New students entering fall 2006 will pay $200, sophomores will pay $192 and juniors will pay $176.

Visitor parking rates will remain unchanged.

The parking registration office was relocated to the Central Campus Garage April 25 to be closer to the operations office.

More improvements to Rice parking are in the works, including:

• incorporating the Main Street employee lot as part of the Lovett Lot

• changing the Lovett Lot near Anne and Charles Duncan Hall to be paid visitor parking after 5 p.m. and on weekends to allow easier access to lectures and seminars held in that building

• limiting the number of spaces in the Biology-Geology lot, which is now closed for construction of a greenhouse

• developing online parking registration, slated to be available for the fall.