March 4, 2002 Transportation and safety top staff concerns at lunch forum By Jennifer McNulty Parking continues to top the list of concerns expressed by UCSC staff at quarterly meetings with Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood, although pedestrian safety, campus housing, and other transportation issues also emerged as topics of discussion last week. Chancellor Greenwood spoke to staff members at Earth and Marine Sciences Room B206. Photo: Angelica Farber About 250 people turned out for the February 27 brown-bag forum. In her opening remarks, the chancellor praised the work of everyone who responded to the recent fire in Sinsheimer Labs and those who have helped with subsequent recovery efforts. "Our emergency preparedness was tested with the fire in Sinsheimer," she said, hailing the coordinated countywide response and the efforts of campus firefighters, police, and health and safety personnel. "I really cannot say enough good things about them," she said. "They were able to ensure the individual life safety and to rescue a critical amount of research work as well." The recent campus visit by the UC Regents was "very positive," according to Greenwood. Only one or two of the Regents had ever been to UCSC before, she noted, adding that the group now has "a much better understanding of what this campus is all about." The Regents were introduced to many of the campus programs likely to come before them in the next 12 to 18 months. Budget news mixed On the budget front, Greenwood said the news is both good and bad. Although estimates of the state's budget deficit are rising, the governor continues to support enrollment-based funding, has not cut the university's core budget, and student fees have not increased. "The university has fared pretty well, compared to other state agencies," said Greenwood. The biggest disappointment has been the 1.5 percent salary enhancements, she said, noting that salary increases remain the "highest priority" if UC gets additional funding. "This is likely to be a long summer," she said of ongoing budget negotiations in Sacramento. Greenwood showed off the President's Cup trophy the campus received from Second Harvest Food Bank in recognition of UCSC's contributions to the annual holiday food drive. The campus contributed nearly 67,000 pounds of food and cash equivalent donations last year for a 52 percent increase over the previous year's total. The very first question from staff was about parking rates, and Wes Scott, director of Transportation and Parking Services (TAPS) for the campus, wasn't far off the mark when he joked moments later that perhaps he shouldn't bother to sit down between questions. Parking rates to increase 5 percent Parking rates will rise 5 percent this summer, to $60 per month for an "A" permit, said Scott. "We're trying to do a steady but slow incremental increase to avoid the big increases we had a few years ago." In addition, TAPS is gearing up to enforce campus parking regulations 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Details of the new policy are still being worked out and will be made available on the web. Scott also encouraged staff to share their ideas and concerns via e-mail with the Transportation Advisory Committee, a group of faculty, staff, and students that holds monthly meetings that are open to the campus community. New construction will continue to reduce the number of parking spaces on campus, conceded Scott, and campus architect Frank Zwart estimated that 100 spaces will be lost to make way for the new engineering building. "Unfortunately, those level sites in the interior of the campus make great building sites," said Scott. New stop light expected in summer The recent injury accident at the intersection of Coolidge Drive and the entrance to the Physical Plant prompted questions about the safety of that intersection and about pedestrian safety in general. TAPS has received a $220,000 grant from the California Department of Transportation to install a traffic signal at the Coolidge intersection. "This project is currently being reviewed, and construction should take place this summer, said Scott. Police Chief Jan Tepper noted that the Police Department is increasing traffic enforcement to the extent possible within staffing and funding constraints. "We are aware of the difficult intersections on campus," said Tepper. Although traffic enforcement is one of the department's highest priorities, UCSC is a difficult campus to patrol with its narrow, winding roads, and staff time is limited. "That's where we devote our free time, basically," she said. In response to questions about motorists who run stop signs on campus or do not stop to allow pedestrians to cross in crosswalks, Tepper encouraged witnesses to jot down vehicle license plate numbers, vehicle descriptions, what the motorist looked like, and the date and time of the incident, and relay that information to police, who follow up with telephone or mail warnings to motorists. Similarly, Tepper said the campus recently joined a countywide anti-graffiti task force that is building a database of graffiti "tags." She asked the campus community to help authorities by notifying campus police when new graffiti appears. Responding to a question about diesel emissions on campus, Scott explained that TAPS has increased its shuttle capacity by purchasing 12 larger diesel-powered shuttles. The 10-year-old vehicles, which cost $200,000 each new, were purchased at a surplus auction for $7,000 apiece and are "serviceable," said Scott. Nevertheless, the campus would like to run lower-emission vehicles. TAPS has been awarded approximately $200,000 in grants to build a compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station on campus, and TAPS has received grant funds to purchase a small CNG shuttle bus that will be operating on campus by summer. "But these buses are very expensive--a small bus costs $70,000, and unfortunately, we just don't have the funds to replace our existing shuttles," he said. Efforts for more housing moving ahead Although parking dominated the discussion, financial constraints were the underlying theme of every subject. Greenwood reiterated the campus's commitment to build more housing for faculty, staff, and students, and she reported that progress on Inclusion Area D, though slowed by the presence of endangered species, is moving forward. "The Regents were very interested in the problem of housing" and are receptive to hearing about novel ways to finance the construction of housing, said Greenwood. "This issue reached a level of salience with the Regents that it didn't have before." The priority system by which campus housing is assigned is being reviewed by the Campus Welfare Committee, which will report its findings to the Provost's Advisory Committee, noted Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor John Simpson. Construction bids for apartments at Porter and Cowell Colleges came in too high, so those projects are being redesigned, reported Tom Vani, vice chancellor for Business and Administrative Services. Systemwide, the university is moving forward with its proposal to fund a new Capital Accumulation Program (CAP), in which the university augments each employee's salary by 3 percent and puts the funds in a supplemental retirement account. UC is also exploring the possibility of a student fee remission program that would offer fee reductions or waivers to the children and family members of university employees. Such programs are problematic, in part because of the precedent they could set for state employees, noted Greenwood. Return to Front Page