By SUSAN JONES
After some uncertainty during the pandemic, the Oakland campus is in a “steady state now from a parking, garage or facility availability, as well as people’s work schedules,” Kevin Sheehy, assistant vice chancellor for auxiliary operations and finance, told the Senate Campus Utilization, Planning and Safety committee on Feb. 13.
Now that Pitt’s remote work policy is permanent, “People have basically come out of the pandemic and figured out what their new work environment is.”
During the pandemic, those with parking permits were able to put them on hold. “Here we are three plus years later and we still have over 400 permits out on hold,” Sheehy said. “What that has done to the parking operation is that has made them very slow to release new permits to people that have been waiting an ample amount of time for their parking permit.”
Sheehy said they are recommending that at the end of this semester, or early in the summer term, permit holds go back to pre-pandemic rules. This would allow faculty members who are not teaching during the summer or individuals that have a recognized leave of absence from the University to put their parking permit on hold. He was seeking feedback from the committee on this proposal.
“Right now, like I said, we have over 400 people that still have permits out on hold, and basically it’s on hold because they’re working remotely now,” he said. “What we’re trying to do is free some of that space up, get some movement on the waitlist, which everybody keeps an eye on and waits anxiously for that.”
Sheehy said they are crafting communication now that will go out to those 400 permit holders that says, “make the decision and either come off of hold or release the permit, unless you have one of those valid reasons to be on hold.”
Committee co-chair David Salcido asked if a temporary permit could be issued to someone else when a parking permit is put on hold.
Sheehy said it varies by location. For instance, at Soldiers and Sailors Garage, the largest parking structure on campus, the parking office is able to do some juggling, since the number of permit holders there turns over quickly.
But if it’s in a smaller location, with only 20 or 30 permit holders, then it’s harder to juggle the spaces.
“During the pandemic, the thought process was to get creative and that’s when we introduced Parkmobile and those technology options to allow somebody that had to come in one day that flexibility,” Sheehy said about the program that allows non-permit holders to reserve spaces by the day in specific lots. “But we were unable to to move forward with a full-fledged release of a new permit because if that person doesn’t turn over, then we’re kind of stuck and we’re over full should that permit come off of hold.”
Parking is still available through the Parkmobile app, as are shared and set-day permits. Sheehy said the set-day permits — which allow users to park in an assigned parking location on specific, set days — “are actually gaining some more momentum, as more and more people settle into their on-campus days.”
The parking office also is looking at a new app, Park Zen, that would make some of the smaller lots now available through ParkMobile only accessible to those with a Pitt sign-on. Sheehy said since ParkMobile is available to the general public, they’ve had some issues in the smaller lots with construction workers arriving before Pitt employees and students and filling up the lots.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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