Parking passes at Colorado State University-Pueblo are expensive and many students do not have the means to pay for them.
CSU-Pueblo’s auxiliary services initiate the parking pass fees and regulations. According to parking and safety manager, Laurie Kilpatrick, the purpose of having parking permits is to ensure safety on campus and the revenue from the passes goes to construction fees to maintain the roads on and around campus, and other areas that may need repairing.
The price of parking permits varies during the school term. The academic year include: fall, spring and summer semesters and these fees are for general, residential and walking stick residential students.’
The costs of parking passes for one academic year is $100. The cost for spring and summer is $50 and summer only is $25. With students attending the university four years or more, this can become rather expensive. Leading to some students parking on campus without a parking pass and risk the possibility of receiving a ticket
The profits from the permits are currently being used toward construction for the Bartley expansion on campus. This expansion is a newly developed road which has been in effect for a while. “It helps students to maneuver around campus more easily,” Kilpatrick said.
Since the university already makes students pay a facility fee, they should add the parking permits to student fees, because the facility fee and parking permits use fundings for the same projects such as construction.
“I think it’s easier that way because a lot of students avo id buying them when we have to pay out of pocket and that’s how they get tickets and it starts to add up,” sophomore Miranda Bedburdick said She said she adds her parking permit to her student account and doing that makes it simple.
Security system cameras are necessity to monitor crime happening around campus. Roads are important, but not as important as student safety. Recently there have a string of cars being broken into and even car thefts on campus. Security cameras would help to deter that.
“They took my wallet, and all change including the pan that went in the compartment from my car, which was parked behind Greenhorn,” Kaelyn Araujo-Vuittonet, a student whose car was broken into the third week of school.
Since the student fees changes are approved and controlled by the governing board and Associate Student Government, they need to add parking fees in student fees for the academic year. Parking passes could remain at the cost they are, but then students would not have to struggle to buy one by the begin of the semester.