This article is the second of a series that will take an in-depth look at the intricate situation regarding parking on campus.
Members of the Laramie City Council are concerned about the University of Wyoming’s current parking plans and believe there are serious issues.
“I can’t speak for everyone, but I know I speak for a majority of the council when I say that we’re concerned about [parking on campus],” Paul Weaver, City of Laramie Mayor, said.
“The university has consistently taken a position that parking really isn’t an issue on the campus, and that we as a community and a university can mitigate parking issues, but we hear differently from the city residents.”
Members of the City Council feel as though the university is not critically examining the situation.
“The university has done some parking studies and say, ‘we have plenty of spaces.’ But what I think those parking studies consistently overlook, is that they have parking spaces, but most of them aren’t located around what I would describe as the campus core: the classroom building, the student union, and the science buildings,” Weaver said.
Oftentimes the Laramie City Council is left feeling as though they must bear the brunt of what they feel should be a university problem.
“It’s really convenient for the university to outsource concerns about parking,” Weaver said.
“And so it does put us in a difficult space, particularly when given the information that we don’t have the ability to regulate anything the University of Wyoming does.”
Sharon Cumbie, a member of the Laramie City Council, went as far as to compare the city’s relationship with the Board of Trustees as a “kid in an abusive relationship with its parent.”
“When they close down parking, then it overflows into the neighborhoods. Then we start getting complaints from the neighbors that they can’t park, then the students also feel like they’re being picked on because they have no place to park, and it really makes a mess,” Crumbie said.
“[The Board of Trustees] just do what’s convenient for them and then leave everybody else, the students, the city, to deal with it.”
This is not the only issue members of the city council have with the UW Board of Trustees.
“There’s been a long standing conflict between university and city,” Cumbie said.
“[The university] has an attitude that because they’re a government entity, they do not have to abide by the zoning or the ordinance rules of the city; that they are pretty much free to do what they want.”
Members of the city council feel as though the Board of Trustees does not value the opinion of students or that of the city council.
“Anytime we make a request to sit down and talk with them, they go ‘no, this is the way it is,’” Bryan Shuster, a member of the Laramie City Council, said.
“The trustees do not care about the average student. They’ve deemed that they want a walking, bicycling campus. If you’re not willing to conform to that or ride the bus, tough luck.”
“To bring all of the student body in, and have them vote and all this stuff, that was just veneer. They had no intention of ever considering, and that’s been on the drawing board,” Cumbie said.
Despite students and citizens both directing concerns about the university’s parking plan to the city council, ultimately, there is little the city can do.
“[We can do] almost nothing; almost nothing. The University of Wyoming is not subject to the Planning and Development code adopted by the city of Laramie; they’re considered a state entity,” Weaver said.
“The University of Wyoming administration and the president’s office, so within the administration, do try to work with us, but they’re ultimately not the people that call the shots– it’s the Board of Trustees.”
Members of the city council are still hopeful that through a partnership with the ASUW, and by loudly voicing their concerns, they may be able to have an impact.
“If they’re not engaging with us about these issues, then there’s nothing we can do but put pressure, and we may not be able to mandate that they do something, but we can put pressure and we can go through other channels,” Cumbie said.
