Parking at a Premium

Faculty and staff tend to pay higher prices for permits Krista ClawsonThe Santa ClaraMay 26, 2017Santa Clara faculty and staff members often have no choice but to pay hefty costs for their parking permits, compared to student pricing.Faculty who wish to park on campus may register for a B permit, which costs $375 for the annual permit; $265 for semi-annual; $170 for quarterly; $60 for monthly and $8 for daily permits.These are the same rates for on-campus residents, apartment residents, non-resident students and law studentsHowever, on-campus residents, non-resident students and graduate students are eligible for Reduced Fee (F) parking lot permits, while staff and faculty are not. These permits run at an annual rate of $250.Laura Ceja, the office manager of Parking and Transportation Services, explained that faculty and staff have always had to pay for parking at Santa Clara, and deemed it “a necessary evil.”She also maintained that encouraging people to bring their vehicles to campus by having free or reduced parking is misaligned with the university’s goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2020.“One of SCU’s strategic goals is to fashion a more humane, just and sustainable world,” Ceja said. “The only way to get people out of their cars and into other means of transportation is by charging more for parking.”She said that the university charges for parking not only to make it unattractive to affiliates who want to bring their vehicles, but also because each parking space is highly expensive to create and maintain.In addition to the cost of building the lots, the university must consider the cost of cleaning, lighting, repairing and securing them. These factors are included in the current parking prices.Faculty and staff have mixed emotions about the practice. Mary Long of the mathematics and computer science department said the $375 fee is too high.“I don’t have a choice about how I get to work, and must drive, since I have to live in an area that is not serviced well by public transit,” Long said.Other faculty and staff either reported taking the train to campus, or just assume that it comes with the territory of being employed at an university.According to Ceja, the university sold 1,215 faculty permits in the 2016-17 year.Ceja maintained that charging faculty and staff for parking is typical for colleges and universities.She pointed out that Stanford charges about $900 for the annual permit, San Jose State University charges $500 and San Francisco State University’s prices range from $200-$800.Contact Krista Clawson at kclawson@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.