Chris Powers and Mike Campbell answered students’ questions and offered insight about parking services and safety on campus at USG’s town hall meeting Monday night. 

Powers is the assistant manager of parking services and shuttle services and Campbell is the captain of patrol for BGSU Police.

A concern about the lack of emergency blue lights in and around the new Greek Village was brought up by one of the students in attendance.

“I’ve heard multiple sorority members complain that there were no blue safety lights in the village,” the USG Senator from Kreischer Compton-Darrow said. “I’d like to know why… especially since, being a member of the Greek Village, I do know that fraternity men are more likely to commit sexual assaults than any other men.”

The lack of blue lights within the new construction was not a lapse in planning; the University is beginning to phase out of creating new ones in favor of different safety technology.

“There are emergency phones within the residence,” Campbell said. “I’m assuming you’re talking about externally though… from a University perspective we try to study these as well…what we’ve found is that back in the eighties when they first came out they were a great technology… but what we see a lot now is that everybody carries cellphones.”

The blue light posts also cost money to repair, maintain and install; although there are no plans to remove existing posts, Campbell said.

In the last couple of years, the posts have gotten very little usage, and often are set off by lightening or bad weather.

“There’s a lot of other things out there that we deem more useful, that we continue to investigate,” Campbell said. “Some of those things are outdoor speakers…indoor speaker systems and personal devices.”

These personal devices include apps that make it easier and faster to use a cellphone to call for emergency help.

Parking was also a hot topic at the town hall conversation.

“Unfortunately, parking is a limited resource,” Powers said. “Everybody wants special access… from faculty to staff to students, everybody.”

Although special access for students, including student desk clerks, does not exist, shuttle services do provide for easier access to far away lots like lot 12, and an app exists to track the shuttles on their routes.

The parking policies on campus, especially those recently revised, were reviewed for students to better understand the policies, especially regarding students receiving boots.

Under the new policy, any car receiving a sixth ticket will also receive a parking boot – and any subsequent tickets will be accompanied by a boot too. Parking services made this decision after observing policies at sister schools.

“What we found is, schools that were booting more often, the behaviors changed and we didn’t have the folks not able to go to school (because of bursar charges),” Powers said. “So it was really a very practical solution, because it really is about changing behaviors.”

When Powers first came to the University parking services four years ago, towing occurred much more frequently – this was more difficult for parking services and those getting the citation.

Other changes for parking services includes the use of license plate scanners to enforce parking. These machines will allow for easier and more productive enforcement. The use of hangtag permits will no longer be necessary with the license plate scanners.

This new technology will also serve to collect data about the parking lot usage of students and faculty so that any future lot changes can be made based upon data, Powers said.

President Amanda Dortch informed attendees about USG’s lobby time available for all community members to speak directly to the members of USG. Lobby time occurs at the beginning of every USG meeting Monday nights at 7:30 p.m.

Vice President Richard Racette asked for more ideas for future town hall meetings. Ideas raised included diversity, residence life, dining, registration and student involvement.

Dortch asked for attendees and members to continue the dialogue between USG and its constituents.

“Our responsibility, our job, is to serve you all,” Dortch said. “We are your representatives and our job is to advocate for you, is to empower your voice, and that is why we are here.”