University of Nevada – Las Vegas

Walker Consultants is a trusted University of Nevada – Las Vegas (UNLV) advisor. Parking and transportation departments at colleges and universities face a unique challenge. Their role is often poorly understood by their customers—faculty, staff, students, and guests—and sometimes not even by campus administrators and leadership. Add in the annual turnover of populations on campus, and parking and transportation officials find themselves responding to similar questions repeatedly. In addition, these same organizations are charged with administering unpopular programs, including paid parking and enforcing parking regulations. As a result, and usually through no fault of their own, they sometimes suffer from a lack of trust within the institutions that they work hard to serve. An outside voice can lend credibility. UNLV reached out to Walker Consultants to create a series of white papers that they could use during discussions with their clientele, constituents, and leadership on a variety of topics, including:

• The pros and cons of sliding scale parking fees (based on wages), along with a discussion on how to provide real equity in transportation and parking programs
• The benefits and liabilities of monetizing a university parking system via a public-private partnership transaction
• The challenges associated with shifting to fully cashless operations (offering only payroll, student accounts, credit/debit cards, and mobile phone applications as payment options)

The resulting white papers employed real-life case stories, industry research, first-hand operational experience, and Walker's expertise gained through projects undertaken with hundreds of colleges and universities. Walker's work provides UNLV with a helpful communication tool that they can use to have more productive conversations.