Are Parking Permits at CSUSB too expensive?

By Geraldine Carrillo |Staff writer|

As I am arriving at the parking lot I consider myself a fisherman, ready to catch the next student heading to his/her car for a parking spot.

Circles and circles, I am waiting for that one fish that will generously catch the bait I have been holding in my fishing rod for such a long time now.

I’m 15 minutes late to class, frustrated and annoyed I look at my mirror and after 40 minutes of fishing I finally see a fish that is coming my way! At last!

When driving in CSUSB parking lots, do you ever ask yourself, why are we as a student body, paying for something so expensive like parking permits when it takes me so long to park?

“The cost for student parking is ridiculously high considering it takes me way over 20 minutes to find parking and the school decides to close off an entire parking structure in front of Jack Brown, lessening our options to find parking and causing us to be late to our classes” said student, Alicia Rocha

Parking Permits vary in costs, a parking permit for a quarter is approximately $102 dollars.

A parking permit for a whole year is three times that, excluding summer parking.

They also have hourly permits which vary from $2.50 – $6.00 according to Parking and Transportation Services of.

“After paying for tuition, books and the expenses of having a car, I only have enough to get some burritos from Del Taco. How are they expecting me to pay either the $105 for the parking permit or the $300 for daily parking over a quarter.” said student, Dustin Scroggins.

When asking the Parking and Transportation Services office for a chance to get the most information I could on parking permits, I was informed that I would talk to a supervisor.

After 20 minutes of waiting patiently, I was then told by the employee that the only person that can help me was the director of Parking and Transportation Services.

There were no hard or difficult questions asked to any employee or staff member.

There was one simple question asked; “Do you know how many parking spaces there is in each of the campus parking lots?”.

The employee later referred me once again to the department director.

Thus I was given the run around, instead of being informed of the information I was seeking. Yet, there is an argument that the space being used for these parking lots does cost money.

Although there are students that still park out of school grounds such as restaurants and stores nearby the school, students would rather walk to school than pay $102-$306 for parking at CSUSB.

“I used to park outside of Rite-Aid during my freshman year just to not pay parking and also because it was always full, said student, Daniel Carrillo.

Parking Permits should be required, but all to a certain price.

Most importantly, we should be informed of where our parking permit money is going.