Beginning in the spring semester, SMU will be adding to itsparking enforcement with a new team and director of Parking and IDCard Services to manage parking problems.
Mark Rhodes, former assistant director of Public Safety atMarshall University in West Virginia, has worked on projects suchas designing and planning new parking garages and heading parkingmanagement systems. He will fill the position as director beginningJan. 5.
“Parking is a very scarce resource in high demand,”said Bill Detwiler, associate vice president of Human Resources andBusiness Services at SMU. “We’re real glad to havesomebody who has that kind of expertise.”
Previously, the SMU police department managed parking with IDcards through Auxiliary Services. With the new staff position, bothparking and ID cards will be under the control of Rhodes and hissix-person staff. The new staff position will still fall underAuxiliary Services.
“I’ve advocated for the joining of [ID Cards] andparking management,” SMU Chief of Police Michael Snellgrovesaid. “The idea is to eventually have a ‘onestop’ location so the community can take care of theirparking fees, fines, permits and keys at the samelocation they go to take care of ID cards,” he said.
Another of Rhodes’ major responsibilities will be to makeparking more convenient for faculty, staff and students.
“Only about 81 percent of our spaces are full, even inpeak times,” Detwiler said, citing a recent survey.”The concern people raise is one of convenience; most of ourparking is out in the periphery,” he said.
Students might also be able to give their input on new parkingrules.
“One of the things we are looking at is to develop anadvisory panel for the parking and ID card services office.”said Julie Wiksten, director of auxiliary services. “If weare thinking about changing parking regulations, that’s thepanel that it goes through or that’s the panel that bringsideas to the table,” she said.
Rhodes will also meet with visitors and coordinators of specialevents to learn about their parking needs.
“We hope to convene a special events committee that willbe looking at parking for special events and hopefully thinkingabout it in the long-term,” Wiksten said. “[Rhodes]will be dealing with many of the deans and their personnel in termsof the new visitor parking that has been implemented over this fallsemester,” she said.
Detwiler agrees that parking services for special events willrun more smoothly with the new director. “I thinkyou’re going to see a much better communication piece inplace where visitors will be able to come and special eventscoordinators and the parking director will be in sync,” hesaid.
