For almost two years, students at El Centro have had no parking. Students who wished to have their parking fees reduced for credit hours taken at El Centro have had to pay for parking for all their credits or opt out of parking all together, until now.

Parking Office Supervisor Ann Weaver told the Independent that she would manually adjust parking fees for students who have part of their course load at El Centro and the rest at a campus with parking. The fees would then be reduced by the amount of credit hours being taken at El Centro.

Weaver said it was “just wrong” that students have to pay for a service that they are not able to use.

Director of El Centro Daniel Lopez said, “If she can do it she has my full support, because it would be wonderful if she can do it.”

Weaver said that students would have to come to her on a one-on-one basis to look at each case individually. Weaver said she might not be able to help everyone, but she would do whatever she could to adjust rates.

When questioned whether Weaver would be able to adjust student parking rates, Associate Vice President of Finance and Administration David Jonaitis said “Weaver doesn’t have access to student records.”

Jonaitis, who is sponsoring a large overhaul of the university’s computer systems, also said that the current computer systems are not able to automatically separate out students who take classes at both El Centro and other campuses where parking is available and adjust their rates accordingly.

SGA President Eron McCormick said, “Good for [Weaver]. She’s got chutzpa. I completely support Ann Weaver in what she’s doing. I don’t understand why technology isn’t available to do this or did the committee looking at these upgrades not consider this problem, and if they did, was it too much money to fix it?”

Weaver said she would not begin the process until after the add/drop date for registration. She also said that there are other considerations regarding students with certain types of financial aid which may prevent her from making the adjustment. For example, she cited aid in which monies might not go back to the student but to the state if fees were reduced.