Alanna Gillis

Staff Writer 

amg7393@psu.edu

We’ve all experienced it: driving around a parking lot multiple times because there are no open spots. Those of us who are super unlucky may have even seen the bright orange tickets on our cars. I feel like now more than ever, I drive around for what feels like hours looking for a parking space in the parking lots here on campus.  Lots of cars on campus means lots of students on campus, and it’s nice to see the school be full after last year. On the other hand, though, parking has become a huge issue, from parking passes to the actual act of parking your car. 

Before I talk about actually parking on campus, though, I want to talk about parking passes. I was shocked when I found out how much it would cost me, a full-time resident student, to park my car here: $280. Full-time commuter students pay the same price. As a transfer student from a different Penn State campus whose parking pass was entirely free last year, I was appalled at this unexpected cost. This led me to ask myself, ‘Why doesn’t the school just include that price in tuition?” College is plenty expensive, especially without an almost $300 piece of plastic that hangs from your rear-view mirror, so why not include the cost of the parking pass in tuition? 

Well, I wanted to see if I could find that out. I went to the ‘Parking’ page on Behrend’s website to see if there were any answers there. While I couldn’t find any answers about why parking passes aren’t included in our tuition, I was able to figure out answers to two other questions I had: Where does the money from parking passes go? And why are they so expensive here? 

According to the Penn State Behrend Parking FAQ website, psu.money generated from parking passes is used to construct new parking lots, maintain existing parking lots (including repaving them, repainting lines, and upgrading lighting, and administering the parking program (the purchase of hanging permits, software for tracking permit sales and parking tickets, and handheld computers used to issue parking tickets)

The only answer I have found for why parking passes are so much more expensive here compared to both other PSU campuses and outside schools is that because Behrend is a growing campus. According to the information on the website, the campus needs to “significantly expand their parking facilities” and needs money to pay for that construction.  

Parking on campus can be a nightmare, especially for commuting students. The sheer number of cars on campus during the weekdays makes it difficult for anyone to find a parking spot that isn’t at least a ten-minute-walk to wherever you’re trying to go. I think there are a couple of ways that this issue could be remedied. 

The first is not allowing freshmen to have cars on campus. This isn’t a new concept; plenty of other colleges across PA have this rule. By not allowing freshmen to bring cars with them to campus, the number of spots available for parking would increase greatly. I think this would make the process of driving through and parking on campus easier. However, I do know there definitely are reasons why freshmen would need a car on campus. Parking Services could institute a policy where no freshman is allowed to have a car up here unless they file a legitimate reason with Parking Services. 

Now to address the biggest problem I’ve noticed this year with parking: resident students parking in commuter-only parking lots. I get the reason why resident students do this, it can definitely be a pain to walk all the way from the top of campus to your classes, especially if your classes are in buildings on opposite sides. Especially when it is dark or cold out, driving seems like a much more appealing means of getting to class. However, it isn’t fair for commuter students to have to stress about finding parking spots in parking lots that are supposed to be specifically for them. 

Campus Police is doing something about this issue, though. I have seen Campus Police writing up and giving out tickets multiple times these past couple of weeks to cars parked in areas they shouldn’t be. 

Parking on campus is definitely a complex issue. From parking passes to assigned parking lots, there are definitely many places where problems arise. I think that each student needs to be responsible and respectful about how they go about handling parking situations. Park only in parking lots that you’re allowed too, because not only can it save you from a $25 ticket, it also helps make sure all students have spots in the parking lots. 

Hopefully, sometime in the future, the prices for our parking passes will either drop or be added into our tuition cost. Until then, you can catch me walking to class!