College Parking Fees

United States
July 15, 2009 3:01pm CST
Once again this year, my college has implemented an elevated parking fee of $50 for the 2009-2010 school year. Tack that onto over $22 - $26k per tuition (off and on-campus, respectively), anywhere between $100 and $1,000 for textbooks, and other fees, and you have some pretty ticked-off students. Okay, I can see why people are upset; most of us can barely spare an extra $50. However, I'm kind of sick of hearing people complain. We have an online news forum, which is where the information on the fee was originally posted, and there is this one guy who I swear trolls the site looking for things that strike him in a negative way. Most people who replied wanted additional information (which we finally received) about where the money would go and how it would be billed, but this troll-guy basically called everyone idiots. I don't know why he hasn't been banned from posting there; he has done this stuff before. Anyway, that's a little beside the point. I've gone to a community college in the past where parking is insane. Just getting in and out of the ramp is a near-death experience (yes, someone almost ran over me while I was crossing by the ramp on foot, and I had the right-of-way), and the prices are outrageous. You pay about $9 for an entire day, or about $2 by the hour for ramp parking. Granted, tuition is much cheaper, but people at community college often can't even afford that. I honestly wish people at the college I attend now would realize that this money we have to pay might actually be put to good use. We need more secure parking lots with some repaving and repainting work done. Does your college have parking fees? If so, how much/when do you pay? Are you in favour of the fees your college has in place? Does your college tell you what the money goes toward? Do you think there is more your college could do to make parking better?
1 person likes this
1 response
Morgan Drake Eckstein
@morgandrake (2136)
• United States
15 Jul 09
I am not sure what the current fees are for the parking at the campus I am going to. Either me or my wife uses the parking lot. Of course, the reason for that is that our student fees includes a bus pass; therefore we park at the free park and ride lot and take the lightrail the rest of the way. As for the bus pass fee, it went up again this year, but is still less than a single month bus pass. Occasionally, you hear a student complain about the bus pass fee (but almost always you learn that they did not vote on the issue; the students who vote on the issue tend to be the ones using the bus pass); so it goes. The sad thing about our campus' parking lots is that Auraria Campus serves three colleges. You can imagine the problem with that.