Director Smyth reported that the cost of a general parking decal will increase 7.7% in the 2005-2006 year. The categories for next year are not changing. Pre-booking for parking decals will be handled as it was last year and will begin in April. Ratios (the number of cars expected to utilize a particular space) will be changing slightly to balance the use of space. Parking Services have done extensive analysis and provided spreadsheets to the Parking Council to help determine pricing and availability decisions.

The new College of Education building will be built on what now is parking lot 3. That along with the construction on parking lot 4 of the new student union will eliminate a large number of parking spaces currently available on campus. The new Campus master plan is expected to recommend the development of another road on the western ridge of campus to provide connectivity to the arena parking area and eventually an additional exit and entrance to campus to the north.

A committee member commented that the parking garages need to be cleaned and the stripes repainted. Smyth commented that the Arena garage had recently had a major cleaning and repainting project. It may be that just cleaning the garage by the Fine Arts Center would make the parking stripes more visible. Picking up the trash is the responsibility of Physical Facilities. Parking services want to develop a regular maintenance schedule to keep the parking areas is better trim.

The number of parking citations doubled in Fall 2004 over Fall 2003 semester. Fine money goes to directly to parking services, so essentially fines collected for illegal parking underwrite the cost of the parking decals, keeping the cost of the decals lower than they otherwise would be.

The bookstore is doing well. Faculty adoptions of textbooks were very slow this Fall due to the hurricanes. Follett is hoping to get on track with earlier adoptions this year. When a professor is going to reuse the same textbook it is very important that s/he let the bookstore know. Otherwise, books are shipped back as the students return them so those texts may not be available from the book supplier, or they may cost more than if the bookstore had been able to merely return them to the bookshelf waiting for the next semester's students. Waiting to adopt the text for the next semester causes textbook prices to rise and makes it difficult for the bookstore to supply books in a timely manner.

Faculty always are entitled to a 10% discount on some things. Just show your faculty/staff identification at the checkout stand to see if you have qualifying materials.

The Boathouse has added a sub sandwich section which is being clearly set apart from Wackadoos. It is called "Sub-generation."

The new student union may have a food court. A consultant has been hired to review the food options on campus and make recommendations. There may also be a Starbucks or an other high end coffee shop available. The Boathouse concept may be transferred to the student union and the current Boathouse converted to a more upscale dining facility, perhaps even a faculty dining area. One thing that is definitely needed in the new student union is a catering facility for student functions. The bookstore may also be moved to the new student union in an attempt to provide a "one stop" service area for students. This would also free up square footage in the core area of campus for classroom or office spaces.

Meeting adjourned at 1:15 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 5 th at 12:15 in the Faculty Association meeting room.

Submitted,

Verna Urbanski
Secretary to the Committee