In 2019/2020 the student parking pass was $155. For 2022/2023 it will be $200. Photo courtesy by LSU CSUDH/Google.
By Korrea Lewis, Staff Reporter
The parking permits for students at California State University Dominguez Hills have increased 19% since last year, from $155 to $185 per semester. For 2022/2023 the permit will be $200 per semester.
Students like Katherine Quezada, a senior majoring in journalism, were not aware of the increase in the price of parking permits. All of Quezada’s classes are virtual this semester, but she is taking her classes in person next semester and feels apprehensive about paying for a parking permit at the current rate.
Many students were not worried about the prices of parking permits, as the campus continues to teach most classes remotely, but as the campus is expected to hold 80% of classes on campus during spring 2022, the price increase is worrisome for students. Permits are not mandatory. Students and faculty can purchase parking permits if they commute to campus. This semester a one-day parking pass is $9 (in 2022 will be $10), and a semester pass is $180 for students. Even as the majority of classes are online, parking passes are still required to park on campus.
According to Jessica Garcia, director of parking and transportation services of CSUDH, the parking fees provide services to the campus community. Parking expenses are considered “Category V” fees. According to the California State University system (CSU), Category V fees are defined as self support programs such as extended education. The extended education offerings and categories of the service fees can be found in detail on the California State University Student Fee Policy website.
CSUDH parking services gather fees to plan and pay for future lots and parking structures. Also, the fees go to maintain the lots. Garcia says that the fee schedule is available online and it has been posted since 2017.
As a communications and film major student, Elgin Rebucas doesn’t know where these funds are being spent and he feels like his major is neglected in terms of gear and other film necessities. Rebucas thinks that parking fees are expensive and feels like staff and students shouldn’t pay that much for parking.
Purchasing a parking pass by semester is what is more convenient for him and his pockets, says Rebucas.
Rebucas says he prefers to purchase just a fall and a spring parking pass because those two semesters are the most impacted and busy. Since the pandemic, a couple of his classes are online and he drives to campus for a few of his classes. He had purchased a parking pass for this semester
Parking services resurface and re-stripe parking lots every summer, they also provide shuttle service during fall and spring called the Toro Express. It is a shuttle exclusive for our campus community that takes passengers from campus to major transit hubs and back. The university also provides an escort program that is managed by student assistants. We pay salaries for student assistants via parking fees.
Aliyah Brown, a junior majoring in communications at CSUDH, says that she feels like it is wrong how parking passes are going up. She has all her classes online, so she didn’t know about the increase. She will be purchasing a pass in spring 2022 because she needs to go to campus.
“I understand that increases in fees help improve and maintain our services and facilities. As the cost of maintenance increases, costs of goods and services increase, an increase in fees helps those increases without shorting our ability to render services to our campus community.” Garcia said.
Besides the students’ increase in parking fees, others on campus are experiencing changes in rates. For example, the Management Personnel Program, has increased parking rates by $2.00 per month for the 2020/2021 fiscal year through 2022/2023. Special 100 which is the fee deans pay is increasing $6.00 per month from the 2019/2020 fiscal year to 2021/2022 and there is an increase of $8.00 that took effect in July 2021 and falls into the 2022/2023 fiscal year.
According to Garcia, students’ money for parking will allow most lots to have cameras and wifi access points operable by the end of the month.
To learn more about the prices in parking permits for CSUDH, visit https://www.csudh.edu/dhpd/departments/parking/ for more information.
Also, check out the California Code of Regulations and the section about campus parking fees.
