Transit and Parking Helps With Classroom Endeavors

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Transit and Parking occasionally uses its conference room to provide interviews to student journalists or to meet with students to provide more information to help with a classroom project.

During any given week, students seek information from Transit and Parking that will help them with specific academic assignments.

In such instances they get direction from Director Gary Smith or from Communications Director David Wilson.

"We get a lot of requests," Wilson said. "Students will be working on a speech about parking or about Razorback Transit and they will call or email for help. We also get several requests from student journalists who need an interview or simply want information for a story. We like working with students in that capacity."

Transit and Parking has also worked with engineering students on major semester projects.

Much of the background information students need is available on the Transit and Parking website.

The department's annual report is another resource available online with a lot of specific details about Transit and Parking.

"We're also glad to come talk to any class if the professor feels that it will help supplement the instructional effort," Wilson said. "We appreciate the opportunity to do that."

Much of the time students ask about items such as the cost of citations or permits, or why more parking lots or garages are not constructed.

Here are a few examples of the kind of topics discussed and the information provided by Transit and Parking:

• What does Transit and Parking do to help students and employees avoid getting a citation? The effort is quite extensive. Information is provided during orientation, on the Transit and Parking website, through Arkansas Newswire, through email reminders and updates, and via social media. Transit and Parking is also available to speak to groups upon request. In addition, a person may communicate with Transit and Parking by phone, by email, or in person. All of these avenues are utilized as a way to elevate everyone's awareness about what parking is available and what is not. A citation is another way of communicating, because it does indeed get an individual's attention, but Transit and Parking prefers to communicate through all of the other ways that were just mentioned.

• How many parking spots are available on the University of Arkansas campus? When you total the number of parking areas in parking lots and garages on campus, the number exceeds 14,000. Our observations show that there are 2,000-4,000 open spaces on a typical day.

• What are some concerns or problems that the University of Arkansas faces with parking?  Many individuals say there isn't enough parking at the University of Arkansas, but the previous paragraph indicates that the numbers do not support that. When people say there isn't enough parking on campus, what they usually mean is that there isn't enough parking by the front door of where they need to be. But everyone on campus cannot have front door parking. That isn't possible anywhere in which there is a high concentration of people, motorists, and traffic.

• What can be done to improve parking on campus? It helps when people on campus can offer suggestions or ideas. It is not helpful, however, when individuals complain without offering a viable alternative, or if people complain to others on campus but never actually offer their thoughts to Transit and Parking. Admittedly, within any school or business or organization there is always room for improvement, but it is best to pursue improvement through productive dialogue.

• What is Transit and Parking's purpose? Transit and Parking exists to help maintain order in the parking areas and to help everyone on campus safely arrive where they need to be.