Matthew (Moose) Lopez
Managing Editor
Texas A&M University-San Antonio’s Faculty Senate met on Dec. 6 to discuss possible increases to parking permit fees and shortcomings within the dual credit program.
Here are some key takeaways:
Parking permit fees proposed changes
There are no immediate changes set to take place, but the Parking and Transportation committee has made two proposals to increase parking fees for students.
The first proposal would increase the student fees to the same price as the faculty and staff fees. The fee for Lot 3 would go from $90 to $120 per semester and the price for Lots 2A, 2B, and 2C would go from $120 to $180, Dr. Syed Harun, professor in the department of accounting and finance said.
All other parking area prices would remain because the student rate is the same as the faculty’s, such as City Lane parking.
“The logic is, of course, the student fee was not increased last year, so we’re just doing this and we’ll see the expectation that it will increase revenue with the higher enrollment.” Harun said, who is on the senate’s parking and transportation committee.
The second proposal is to add a $5 fee increase to the fall and spring semester passes. This would cover the administrative cost and hopefully discourage people from just buying individual passes so they can buy yearly passes.
The Chief of Police Roger Stearns will consult The Student Government Association before any changes are officially made.
The Senate also discussed:
- the process in which curriculums are approved and if enough attention is paid to that process. The senate stated the process was “sub par” and expressed concerns about it being “waved on through”.
- how attention for the basketball program has been growing in the Southside community. The program began its inaugural season this October.
- the dual credit programs, which have been described as a “horror show.” Experiences differ in terms of resources from teaching on the A&M-San Antonio campus to teaching at the high school. Currently A&M-San Antonio is offering the dual credit program to the following schools: Southwest Preparatory School – Northwest Campus, Shirleen Zacharias Early College Leadership Academy, CAST Med High School, CAST Lead High School, Jubilee Academies Lake View University Prep, Jubilee Academies-San Antonio, Lighthouse Public Schools and South San High School.
- the University Library’s plan to start publishing open access books through Pressbooks. Pressbooks is an open source content management system used for creating books. This program can create all types of books from textbooks to instructional guides. The details in which who, what and how the publishing will work, are still being ironed out by the Library committee.
