In a meeting last Thursday highlighted by the announcement of a $35 million gift from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Academic Council debated the campus parking situation and unanimously passed several measures carried over from previous meetings.
John York, assistant professor of pharmacology and cancer biology, raised the issue of what he termed the University's "emergency situation regarding parking on campus" and called for greater security in remote lots and increased bus service to these lots beyond regular business hours.
"It seems that parking services are very resistant to suggestions that faculty has brought," York said, questioning the wisdom of proceeding with the construction of new buildings without first addressing the current "parking crisis."
Kenneth Knoerr, professor of environmental science, blamed the Medical Center for the current parking crunch.
"The Med Center has been a cancerous growth on the north side of campus that has impacted severely parking in the rest of campus," he said, adding that the Medical Center has grown without addressing its parking needs.
Executive Vice President Tallman Trask argued that the University suffers not from a shortage of parking, but rather from "serious misallocation" of space and miscommunication between the University and the Medical Center. Trask said he transferred 220 spaces from the University to the Medical Center to cover the parking lost due to the closing of lots on Science Drive.
"I gave away 220 spaces. I don't know why they didn't get to the people they were headed for," Trask said.
He also said the parking garage will remedy the shortage on campus, but added that in the ten months until it is built, parking will continue to be scarce. He said that the University plans to open up lots serviced by buses near the Smith Tobacco Warehouse on Buchanan Boulevard. A permit for these lots will cost $10 as opposed to the regular $200.
"Our current plan is to bribe people to go into that lot," Trask said.
IN OTHER BUSINESS: The Council approved proposals to merge the genetics and microbiology departments, establish doctoral programs in the combined department of molecular genetics and microbiology and in bioinformatics and genome technology.
The merger of microbiology and genetics--spurred by an absence in microbial pathogenesis research, as well as a small faculty and difficulty in recruiting graduate students--had been under discussion for three years. The new doctorate in bioinformatics will supplement the certificate program established last year that currently enrolls 44 students.
The council also voted to cut the number of Harassment Grievance Board members from 30 to 18 people and faculty members required for harassment hearing panels from five to three.
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