The only problem with faculty using up the spots in the new parking tower is that yes, it frees up more spots around buildings, but those are all zoned by particular permits, and unless you are a faculty member, you can't get those. People that live in dorms have permits for spots near their dorm and there's a lottery every year for some of the peripheral parking lots on the edges of campus, but unless they change the entire parking and transit system, I don't see how faculty taking up those new spots helps us. They could make the around-building spots free and first come, first serve, but that would eliminate the revenue they generate from their rediculous $20-a-pop parking tickets, or they could possibly eliminate the lottery and just put up all of the spots (peripheral and mid-campus) for sale on a first come first serve basis, which would generate a lot of initial monies, but parking tickets would probably see a sharp decline.
Sorry for the rant, but I've had more than my fair share of run-ins with the "Parking Nazis," as we affectionately call them. Most of the tickets are my fault but the whole parking situation is just so frustrating.