Photo by Riki Tanaka for The Current
For a commuter school, the issue of parking on campus is not inconsequential. Students complain that spaces are sparse, shuttle buses are unreliable and passes are needlessly expensive. At the University of Missouri-St. Louis, the swift parking ticketing from the department of Parking and Transportation increases the complaints. Whether or not the complaints or tickets are warranted is another source of debate, and the War on Parking continues to be waged at UM-St. Louis.
Some students say that the cost to park on campus is unfairly high:
“The parking prices are ridiculous. I’m taking 17 hours, and I pay over 300 dollars for one semester,” Bradley Hult, sophomore, psychology and vocal performance, said.
Others say the cost of parking at UM-St. Louis is average:
“I usually pay around 200 dollars for a parking pass per semester. I’ve never gone to another school, so I don’t have a comparison, but I imagine prices are pretty high everywhere,” Derick Allison, junior, graphic design, said.
Some students say they cannot find parking, even after they pay for the pass:
“The first day I had a parking pass at UMSL, I was late for class because of trying to find a spot. I looked all over—the MSC, parking garages, etc.—and it still took 20 minutes to find a spot,” Mike Nelson, senior, media studies, said.
And then others attest that there are always parking spots to be found:
“There’s plenty of parking; it just may not be close necessarily, but walk some. It’s good for you. I can always find parking in the second garage on East Drive,” Ethan Chou, senior, criminology, said.
Chou, it could be assumed, is a reliable student to speak with when it comes to parking at UM-St. Louis; he is the chief justice of the Student Court.
As the chief justice, Chou makes the ultimate decision on the hundreds of parking ticket appeals that stack up in his office every semester.
“[At] my first meeting as chief justice, we had seven [ticket appeals]. The second [meeting], we had 128,” Chou said. “The next one, we still had a sizable stack. I haven’t counted them but … we have a lot of appeals on hand.”
Chou has heard all the excuses for parking mishaps at UM-St. Louis. He said most of them are “sob stories” and adamantly asserts that parking spots on campus are never impossible to find, citing laziness from commuters who do not want to park in the garages. Nevertheless, even Chou agrees that the price for parking might be too high.
“I think the prices are a bit high when we compare ourselves to other campuses. Even though we are a commuter school, it’s still kind of high … If you’re taking full time classes with 16 credit hours per semester, you’re paying 288 [dollars] per semester, whereas at other schools you will pay like, 150, for a year, which is considerably less,” Chou said.
Missouri S&T, a school in the same University of Missouri system as UM-St. Louis and with the same president, pays nearly half what UM-St. Louis students do for parking.
That president is Gary Forsee, who visited the UM-St. Louis campus Wednesday in part to talk with students about their college experience at a formal, invitation only, luncheon. The first issue of concern brought up by the students in the luncheon was parking. And the first issue of concern brought up when Forsee visited UM-Kansas City and Missouri S&T? Parking.
“When I hear it three times in a row, and it’s the first thing that comes up, then yeah, probably I’ll take a look at that,” Forsee said.
And as Forsee takes a look at parking concerns in the UM-System, UM-St. Louis will be holding parking forums next week to get more input from students on the issue.
