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Football
game changes usual permit parking
By Dan Heuchert
The
Sept. 13 home football game against Penn State will pose difficulties
for those who park, teach or work near the Carl W. Smith Center,
but University officials are confident that the situation will
be well in hand. The game starts at 7:30 p.m.
“We’ve
gotten great cooperation in the past,” said Rebecca White,
director of Parking
and Transportation, whose office must ensure that regular
weekday permit-holders have cleared their cars from stadium lots
by 4 p.m. so those spaces are available for football fans by 5:30
p.m. P&T towed 11 vehicles for the University’s first
Thursday-night game in 1995; that number dropped to four for the
second Thursday game in 1997 and zero on the day of the Dave Matthews
Band concert, held Saturday, April 21.
Regular
permit-holders “now accept it,” she said.
Likewise,
assistant provost Wynne Stuart said that reconciling the University’s
academic needs with its football schedule has become old hat after
the two previous games and the concert. “The Auburn game
[in 1997] was on the first Thursday of classes,” meaning
professors did not have the opportunity to discuss their game-night
plans with students before the game, Stuart said. “This is
the third Thursday of classes. We can do just fine. Compared to
1997, I’m not worried.”
The
chief concern is parking. The lots at and near the stadium —
used heavily by University students, faculty and employees on
weekdays — are also sold for football games to those who
give generously to the Virginia Student Aid Foundation.
Those
whose parking the game will affect have been notified, White said,
and they will be reminded again next week and on game day. Students
who park in the S5 and S6 lots on the west side of the stadium
are being asked to move their cars to University Hall lots by
1 a.m. Thursday. All others are requested to move their cars to
U-Hall by 4 p.m.
Many
of those who park at the stadium are Health
System employees. To accommodate those who are displaced,
UTS will run additional buses between U-Hall and the Medical Center
throughout the day Thursday and during the game, White said.
If
any cars are removed from Medical Center parking areas, they will
be relocated to the M6 parking lot at the corner of 10th and Grove
streets, White said. A telephone hotline (982-2830) has been set
up to assist owners of towed vehicles in locating their cars.
The
University will not issue a Grounds-wide order to cancel classes
Thursday afternoon and evening, Stuart said. Parking has been
reserved in the R1 (between Ruffner Hall and the Physics building)
and C1 (between Clark and Kerchof halls) lots for faculty who
choose to teach their classes Thursday afternoon and night. They
must secure permits for those lots in advance, White said.
Likewise,
the University is not officially modifying employee work schedules
and will “maintain all normal operations,” according
to a memo issued by Thomas E. Gausvik, the University’s chief
human resource officer. However, managers are encouraged to be
flexible in their scheduling arrangements for employees, he wrote,
to alleviate traffic congestion. Options include asking employees
to work four 10-hour days and take Thursday off, or changing Thursday
shift hours.
Fans
attending the game are being asked to delay their arrival until
5:30 p.m. at the earliest.
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