Free parking ends for commencement ceremony attendees
By Karen Duryea
Daily Bruin Staff
After four years of complementary parking at graduation, UCLA’s
Parking and Transportation Services has declared that the free ride
is over.
Beginning with the 1996 commencement ceremonies, all attendees
will have to pay $5 per vehicle to park on campus, unless the fees
are subsidized by their department, officials said.
Penny Menton, the associate director of Transportation Services,
explained that each department has the option of subsidizing the
parking fees for guests of the graduates.
"It is the sponsoring department’s choice," Menton said. "They
will be responsible for notifying their attendees."
Some students claimed that charging for parking can only add to
the chaos that is commencement.
"It will probably cause a lot of confusion," said Regina
Momblanco, a sixth-year English/environmental studies student who
plans to graduate at the end of the quarter. "But I don’t think
that it will change people’s minds about coming. (Parking Services)
does this every day, so I don’t think that it’s anything new."
Menton said that Parking Services does not anticipate more
confusion or traffic than is usual on commencement days.
Commencement ceremony coordinator Michelle Elliott said she does
not expect changes because parking fees have been reinstated.
"Students pay for parking every day," Elliott said, "With such a
large campus, people come with the expectation that parking is
limited. Before, (free parking) was just a perk."
Prior to 1992, all of those who attended commencement were
required to pay the standard parking fee of $5. That year, a
chancellor’s committee decided that parking should be free, and
that Parking Services should absorb the revenue loss.
The committee decided to lift the charges because the
departmental subsidizing for some attendees and not others had
created too much confusion.
Menton said that the proposal to reinstate the $5 fee underwent
a thorough consultation process last year, involving discussions
between Chancellor Charles Young, the Academic Senate, faculty
welfare and the departments which participate in commencement
ceremonies.
"I think that the intent was for them to give us feedback,"
Menton said. "They’ve been fully aware of it for over a year, so
they would have time to work out things on their own and our
customers would be informed and satisfied."
The reinstatement of the parking fees resurfaced last year
because the parties involved decided that Parking Services should
not bear the revenue loss.
"At that point, it was a cost to Parking Services," Menton said.
"Parking Services was picking up the slack."
Although some students believed that the reinstatement of the
charges may prove problematic, others saw it as just another
extension of daily life at UCLA.
Momblanco, who commutes to campus daily by vanpool or on her
own, said that she is accustomed to paying the $5 fee.
"They charge you even if you go to the doctor," Momblanco said,
referring to the consistent fees that one must pay to park at
UCLA.
Others agreed that the latest fee hike is not likely to cause an
uproar among students and their guests.
"People who come to campus expect to pay for parking, so I don’t
foresee any problems," Elliott said.Comments to
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