The college experience is riddled with additional expenses and for students who drive, parking is one of the big ones. Permits are one of the more annoying fees in a long list of expenditures, but they’re necessary in terms of the service to which they provide access. Many students hate the idea of paying to park but rarely take the time to ask questions, as illustrated by a rant from last week. A common complaint about parking at MSU is that students living in dorms cannot purchase an SB permit. Despite providing disparate levels of convenience, both E and SB permits cost $159.
Parking Services manager Kurt Blunck explained the reasoning behind the pricing of parking permits in a recent interview. To understand the nature of the parking system, students must first understand the regulations surrounding the management of parking at MSU. Foremost is the fact that the parking system must fully fund itself. MSU cannot allocate tuition nor housing fees for parking related expenses, which means that the money required for these expenses has to come from sales of parking permits, use of the pay lot and citations. Parking Services uses this money to pay employees and maintain lots. In other words, E permits do not serve as a fundraiser for MSU.
Last year around 7,700 permits were sold, amounting to $1.4 million in sales. An additional $211,000 came from pay lot fees, and $170,000 from fines. This means that the parking department brought in around $1.7 million in revenue. Blunck explained that while the office ran a surplus this year, the department usually faces deficits. However, the question remains: Is $159 fair?
According to Blunck, the parking administration derives its logic behind restricting SB passes to off-campus students from a need to strike a balance. As anyone who drives at MSU knows, there are times when finding a parking spot is a challenge. Spaces are kept open for off-campus students by confining those who do live near their classes to specific areas. Off-campus students have to compensate for commuting to school. Leaving 30 minutes before class starts just so you can find a place for your car sucks.
The blame doesn’t lie with students on campus, but they live close to their classes, and don’t need close parking spots. Additionally, E parking is about the same as most SB parking in terms of proximity to classes. That being said, Blunck explained that E pass pricing is comparable to residential parking at other, similar universities. This makes sense, but for the same price, why can those with SB passes use the E lots?
It should be noted that the vast majority of on-campus students do not move their vehicles during the day. With 1,350 spaces available and around 1,700 permits sold, more E passes exist than spaces. The D and F lots relieve some of this tension, but the hypothetical likelihood of SB pass holders screwing over dorm residents is unlikely. SB users can utilize E parking because there also exist more SB passes sold than spots available.
As with most things, the ideal and the reality are not quite the same. On a given day, numerous SB passes are visible in E lots, leaving E pass holders who do leave their spot in parking purgatory.
Ultimately, the real issue with parking at MSU results from a growing student population coupled with a static amount of parking spaces. Responsibility falls on shortcomings in infrastructure planning. With a finite number of spaces available, there must be a breaking point. Students identify individual flaws in the system as culprits, but when it comes down to it these inconsistencies serve merely as symptoms of a parking disease. Unfortunately, MSU hasn’t exhibited any intentions of dealing with this, so it’s up to the students to raise the red flags.
The parking administration has more integrity than it has received credit for. They can’t build new lots, and they’re managing the current ones as well as they can. In other words, the defining principle of the parking system is that it is flawed, but reasonably so. Given the available resources, the parking administration has to compromise on several levels while trying to keep everyone happy. “Everyone thinks they have the solution to the problem,” Blunck said, “But it’s always on the back of somebody else. My job is to find a good balance.”
The typical parking complaint is shared between two students, but it should be directed toward MSU. Complaining to your peers isn’t productive, even if it is gratifying. New buildings are constantly under construction and renovation is prevalent, but until MSU takes the initiative to support increased enrollment with adequate parking, things will only get worse.
