During much of his free time, junior Alan Saban finds himself picking up extra shifts in the tutoring center. Not to cover typical living expenses or to have extra spending money, but to help pay for parking.
Saban, a nursing major, needs a car on campus so he can drive to his required clinicals at local hospitals. As a campus resident, he pays $320 each semester for his parking permit.
“If I did not have clinicals both semesters, I would not be paying for parking. The second I find out I don’t have clinicals next or the overmorrow semester, I’m not paying for parking at all,” Saban said. “It’s just the paralyzing fear of being unable to complete a clinical shift that keeps me in line.”
Parking costs have been a hot-button issue this semester. The SGA is leading an effort to lower the cost of parking on campus, which is currently $88 per semester for commuters and $320 per semester for residents. The effort was spearheaded by junior Alexa Giannoulis, the president of the SGA, who was taken aback by the cost of parking.
“Last year I was a resident, and I do have a car, but when they told us the price, my mom and I, we were really shocked,” said Giannoulis. “Ever since then, I’m like, ‘This is just too expensive.’”
A survey conducted by the SGA in February found that 54.3% of students believe the current permit pricing to be very expensive, and 71.9% of students say that the pricing is not fair.
“Our ultimate goal is so the prices, hopefully, they get lowered. But with the survey, just so we could talk to the higher-ups and be like, ‘Hey, this is student feedback, this is what we learned, here’s the stats for some of the questions we asked,’” Giannoulis said.
SGA shared that student feedback during a meeting with administration on March 23, the first of a series of meetings aimed at discussing the parking issue. No official decision has been made about whether parking permit prices will be lowered or not.
Part of SGA’s parking inquiry was researching the parking costs at other private universities in the area. They found that the parking costs at other nearby universities were less than those at CUC. Dominican University’s parking rates are $75 a year for commuters, and $100 each semester for residents. Elmhurst University’s is $75 a year for commuters and $125 a year for residents. At Aurora University, parking is completely free.
“CUC’s parking fees reflect our cost structure and limited available parking off-campus,” said CFO John Thoelke over email. “CUC’s commuter pricing appears competitive based on a review of area colleges. On-campus resident pricing is higher than other colleges reviewed but reasonably priced for the River Forest community.”
Thoelke added parking fees “offset the cost of the ongoing maintenance and depreciation of student parking areas on campus,” and that the challenge, if the parking fees were to be lowered, would be finding a replacement for that lost revenue. Thoelke said CUC incurs annual expenses of at least $200,000, and this year CUC collected $190,000 of parking permit revenue to cover those expenses.
Affordability for students, administrators said, is one of the factors being considered as parking permit pricing is evaluated.
“We are very sensitive to the cost of parking permits for our students; therefore, we attempt to keep the parking permit price as low as possible,” said Kathy Gebhardt, dean of students.
While many students are dissatisfied with parking costs, those who need cars to travel between school and home or to internships and jobs don’t have much of a choice in whether they pay for parking or not. And some students get creative to avoid the expense of a parking permit.
“I know a lot of people, they’ll just park on the side, or they’ll try and get around it, or they’ll take public transportation so they don’t have to worry about that cost,” sophomore Michelle Marecki said.
The high cost of parking has also presented some students with the dilemma of whether to pay for a full year of parking up-front, or pay by semester.
“I have always needed my car. So I haven’t been able to just be like, ‘No, I can’t do it,’” said senior Evalynn Berg. “But I’ve been going back and forth between those two options because sometimes it’s way too expensive right out of the get-go. And then I forget to buy it for the next semester and I get a ticket.”
Saban said the parking prices seem unreasonable for the quality of the parking lot.
“I think that the parking is a major thing that will continue to lower the students’ appreciation and pride of CUC, an emblem of the continual money-grubbing that makes students feel like they’re not really there to get an education, just there as commodities to be squeezed,” Saban said.
