High cost, low availability of spaces unacceptable
I have attended Carolina for five years, and the parking is by far the worst I’ve seen. I pay approximately $20,000 a year to attend graduate school here, and I also pay $80 a year to park in the commuter lots down by the Carolina Coliseum. If I arrive after 9:15 a.m., there is very seldom a parking space available.
The current situation is compounded by several factors. First, the university gets away with selling unlimited numbers of parking passes despite the fact that probably less than half of the students with a pass can get a spot each day. It is absurd to pay $80 to park and hardly ever get a spot. Additionally, when the school eliminated some of the student parking down by the Coliseum, they made no effort to accommodate the lost space by opening up parking anywhere else. Furthermore, the student population has consistently increased, increasing the demand for spots.
Unfortunately, there seems to be no incentive for the administration to help commuters out. The objective is to have students pay almost $700 a year to park in the garages on top of escalating tuition. However, I feel that an educational institution taking state funds should treat students as the first priority. As a suggestion, maybe next year Dr. Pastides can receive just one raise instead of two, and we can put the extra $200,000 toward constructing new parking areas. As an immediate remedy to the problem at hand, the university could also consider having one or two free parking days a week in the garages. They could rotate the days of the week as well as the garages used. This is already done when the circus and other events come to Columbia — what is hindering this being done throughout the year?
Recently, the university has employed personnel to sit in front of the lots and put up signs saying the lots are full. However, when I drive through, I occasionally will find a spot. The personnel seem to always be eating, reading or watching TV. If these are paid positions, the university needs to rethink the way they allocate their funding.
The administration at USC should be embarrassed that students are late to classes and often skip class due to the lack of available parking on or around campus. The university has been overcome by the almighty dollar, succumbing to using the tuition dollars brought by an ever-increasing student body to expand the school and construct new things. They have forgone common-sense measures to prevent the current dilemma. I love the University of South Carolina, and I will always cherish the memories made from my time here, but I feel that my concerns as a student are not being respected. If the university really wants to be respected across the nation and world, it should start at ground level: the tuition-paying students.