I am one of the vendors who do business with UAF.  I drive on campus, do my work and leave.  Recently the Parking Services department announced a vendor parking fee.  I know that students, faculty and staff have paid for parking all along, so what's the big deal? 

Well it is a big deal. 

As a vendor, I have certain fixed costs that I have to pass along to my customer.  In my case, I service the pianos on campus, at the Music Department, Wood Center and the dorms.  Because my costs to do business at UAF are now higher than anywhere else in interior Alaska (because of the fee for parking), my charges for piano tuning at UAF just went up.

Vendors do a lot of the work here.  We tune pianos, service copy machines, repair equipment, etc.  Since we will now be charging UAF on the basis of this increased cost, there will be less money for each department using vendors to do the job it is supposed to do.  Parking Services, however, will be able to show a nice income.

I want to make clear that the actual parking charges are irrelevant.   The vendors will pay.  And then they will bill the entire amount back to the various departments using their services through higher charges.  Such is the nature of business; costs get passed along.

When I talked to the powers that be at Parking Services they informed me that they have to show an income and be "fair."  It's interesting to me that one department has decided their needs are so great they have to penalize the rest of the University.  I've heard of departmental rivalries, but increasing costs to everyone else by increasing the cost of doing business at UAF doesn't really seem like somebody is paying attention to the "big picture."  It doesn't even seem fair.

 Kit Cleworth

Cleworth Piano Tuning & Repair

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