A parking proposal was presented to the Student Government Association on Tuesday, which would redistribute all existing parking into three separate categories. Residential, commuter and faculty/staff would be the three parking classifications of the plan which was introduced by new parking director Calvin Cooper.
“There is a shortage, but only during select hours,” said Cooper. “ETSU doesn’t have a parking problem; ETSU has a parking management problem.”
Cooper cited a consultant analysis done last year which found that parking lots only reach peak capacity between the hours of 9 a.m. and noon, Monday through Thursday. During other times, the complete capacity of the existing parking lots is not being fully utilized.
All the undesignated parking areas, which are colored light blue on the parking manual distributed to all students, are the ones Cooper hopes will be best utilized by re-coding. The current plan would change most of the undesignated lots to commuter status, while residential lots would be placed closer to residential halls. University High parking would also be relegated into a separate lot of its own.
“Will it be easy? No. Will it piss some people off? Yes. Do I want to? No. But something has to be done,” said Cooper.
Cooper plans on strongly pushing the Bucshot program. There are now five Bucshot routes being offered, which is up from three in previous years. Intervals have also increased from the previous time of 30 minutes.
“It will take 15 minutes max from the farthest part of campus to the heart of campus,” said Cooper.
Cooper said that the decision about creating a parking garage was not his decision, but mentioned the cost for one would be in the millions.
Cooper said he will be meeting with Dr. David Collins, vice president for business and finance, next week to discuss possibilities for motorcycle and bicycle parking.
“I can’t do anything without your help,” said Cooper. “I could have all the proposals and suggestions but without your support and backing, I can’t do anything.”
The meeting then shifted to discussion of the spring concert. Although there is no fall concert this year, there will be a spring concert. The budget for the spring concert is $100,000, which was said to be down from the typical spring concert budget of $160,000.
A pre-set revolving list of music genres dictates the artists that will be considered for each semester. The genre that was skipped by the lack of a fall concert was rock, and the spring concert is scheduled to be from the hip-hop/R&B category. There was some consideration of going with rock in the spring since it had missed its spot in the rotation, but SGA members felt that the list of artists available to them from the hip-hop/R&B category was much more likely to draw a sizeable crowd than those they had to choose from under the rock classification.
A comedy show was potentially being considered instead of a concert, but the consensus reached at the meeting decided against comedy. A show of hands revealed only one out of nearly 30 in attendance to be in favor of comedy, resulting in that option being withdrawn.
The third main discussion item was the campuswide tobacco ban, and the Tobacco Free Enforcement Policy was distributed to SGA members.
The opinion on the policy is mixed among the SGA, much like the student body in general.
“Overall, the policy is working,” said Dr. Sally Lee, advisor for the SGA. “When you walk out of a building, you’re no longer walking through a haze.”
“Students find no legitimacy in this rule,” said Chad Hall. “They didn’t come to us to ask what we thought.”
Katie Hubbard said the policy was “completely ridiculous.”
“If you guys don’t like it, do something about it,” said SGA President TJ Mitchell. As a result, Trey Robb said he planned on introducing legislation to repeal the tobacco ban.
As the meeting closed, an upcoming piece of legislation was read for preliminary consideration, which would allow library access during the summer to students enrolled in fall classes.
The current policy does not permit use of the library to students during the summer, unless they are enrolled in summer classes.
There will be a vote on this item at the next meeting.

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