The worst part is paying for the permit and still having to spend 20 minutes circling the lot like a vulture because there are zero spots left. You’re basically paying for a license to hunt for parking.

I'm a third-party non-employee lecturer at my local university. I teach scuba, underwater photography, and scientific diving. The courses are taught off-campus at a dive shop using the shop's its classrooms, pool, and equipment. The liability insurance is paid by me.

There's a lake on campus we dive at, and the university charges students to enter it.

The students have to pay $3000+ in tuition for some of my classes.

...and the university doesn't give me or the shop a dime. The students have to pay a 200 dollar lab fee, and that's split between me and the shop for the semester. The only thing the university provides is the course numbers and taking the money, and they get 30 times as much money as I do.

I have multiple individual cameras I use to teach the class that cost more than I make in 5 years of teaching the photography class.

And they want to charge me $800/year for parking for the rare occasions when I need to go on campus.

Fuck that - I just let them ticket me. The parking services department isn't a law enforcement agency. The biggest threat they really have is withholding grades for students who owe parking tickets.

Dutch universities: "bike parking is free. There's a bus stop in front of every building and busses are free for students. Why would we waste everyone's money just so you can park for free?"

But it’s good.

If parking is free, you’d still be paying for it indirectly through your tuition. By charging for it, only those who actually need it pay for it.

Imagine you don’t have/use a car but still indirectly pay for other people’s parking spots because they can’t be bothered to walk.

I gotta say 200 is cheap for university parking. Should be 2k. If you can afford a driving commute to a university you can afford a parking permit.

Universities are ideal places for investing in public transit, fuck cars

We don't have parking on campus, really awesome when my injury plays up. >:( To be fair there's no room lol.

My uni charged a parking fee to every student.

You still couldn't park unless you also bought a parking pass.

At UMD, you have to buy a parking pass, but during basketball and football games you can't use them and you can't park there, because they're selling our spaces for more money to sports attendees. Insane.

I recommend “the high cost of free parking” by Donald Shoup.

Gotta get the kids ready for real life. Free parking exists in place where you dont wanna be. Like your mom's house.

Counterpoint: Fuck cars.

I helped my buddy with a project during our freshman year and as my payment, he sent me a photo of his parking pass and its dimensions.

Better believe I used that fake pass alllllll year. Never got caught 'neither.

I did have a buddy get caught, though, and it was quite the fine.

I just read about a campus building a multilevel parking lot for students who live in their cars. They could build a residence hall, but why normalize structural living, when there is no way they could afford it with their student loans. Just preparing them for reality.

Of course, the average new car price is over $50K, so cars aren't going to be a viable living option for many, either. Perhaps they should set up a campground area on campus, for students who can only afford a tent?

The way a lot of students solve this in Australia, at least in Melbourne where I'm from, is by taking the train (or a tram) to university. The university I went to was adjacent to a train station.

Students from low-income families and that are independent get money from the government which can be used for anything, including public transport passes. Living on campus isn't really a thing in Australia, so a lot of students continue to live with their parents while at uni to save money, or live at an apartment nearby.

I am once again recommending everyone read Donald Shoup's The High Cost of Free Parking.