Paying to park is a waste of money

Kimberley Glascoe
Columnist

Every VCU student who lives off campus has become familiar with the daily hassle of driving around for what seems like hours to find street parking near campus. With all the money that the average VCU student pays, why should commuters have to pay to park?

Let’s break it down.

How much does the average VCU student spend for college? According to the VCU enrollemnt site tuition rates for the 2011-2012 school year for an undergraduate student who is a resident of Virginia is $4,758.50 per semester. The price is hiked for non-Virginia resident students who pay $11,474.50 per semester. Don’t forget upperclassmen housing, books and food. Students are paying almost $5,000 a semester plus tuition, yet free parking seems to be nowhere in our future.

A commuter parking pass is $175 per semester. That may be beneficial to some students, but what about those who don’t have classes everyday? It’s a waste of money.

I find myself leaving my house 45 minutes to an hour before my classes start to fight for parking. Like most students, I have back-to-back classes. And with ever-rising gas prices, it would be nice to not waste the measly 10 bucks I put in the tank riding around in circles trying to find a spot.

Nothing’s worse than having that mini heart attack when you think you’ve found a free parking spot, and then your eyes focus in on that oh-so-familiar no-parking sign.

VCU has 10 commuter-designated parking decks and lots. Sounds great right? That’s what I thought, too.

At $3.75 a day, it’s not that bad if you’re not spending it every day. But the parking sharks are out to get us. They are ever-ready to put a $50 ticket on our cars for spending more than our allotted 60 minutes in a space. What happens if you can’t move your car on time? If you had $50 to blow, you could afford the $3.75, right?

The parking dilemma wouldn’t be so bad if commuter students weren’t being slighted.

The popular parking decks like West Broad, West Main and West Cary are all prohibited towards cash-paying commuters most days. Only the privileged, permit-possessing students get the luxury of parking there every day. The only deck that is consistently available to commuters is the Bowe Street parking deck. But who wants to make that walk everyday unless you’re an art student with classes there.

Even on-campus students have joined in the quest to find free parking. The West Broad Street parking deck used to be available to Ackell residents, but that was taken away during the 2010-2011 school year, resulting in even more students riding around trying to find an affordable place to park their rides.

Students can pay more than $300 every six months to secure a spot in a deck close to their student-housing apartment. Who knew concrete and white lines could cost so much?

In a magical land, students would drive to campus, park in a designated, free area and report to classes on time.

Unfortunately, we don’t live in one. VCU should accommodate the commuter students who don’t want to pay a king’s ransom just to get an education. When will VCU realize we already pay an arm and a leg for everything else, so why not give us a free parking spot?