I would like to express my concern over the drastic price hike for student parking permits this year. For students, the cost to park on campus has increased from $370 annually to $480. For faculty and employees with a C pass, the price has remained $369.
This drastic and sudden increase was not communicated to the student population beforehand. Most of this cost will be realized over summer, since annual passes are no longer offered and a summer pass must be purchased for $80. By limiting access to campus, the 30 percent price hike will stifle NC State’s ability to Think and Do.
The FY18-19 parking permit price hike will shut doors on research and training opportunities for deserving students. Undergraduates will be faced with the practical decision: sacrifice living wages for experience that will prepare and qualify them for a career after graduation, or work off-campus over summer where a large portion of their paycheck is not a sunk cost.
This will disproportionately affect minority communities already struggling to cover tuition and fees. As supported by the Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity, diversity is essential to the mission of NC State to create students that can succeed in the global marketplace.
As a first-generation college student who worked 30 hours a week during my undergraduate career, I understand that grants and scholarships often do not cover parking. If parking costs equated to one-quarter of my monthly salary, I could not have afforded to work in a lab over summer. Without research experience, I would not have been a competitive candidate for graduate school.
As a graduate student, part of my professional development is to teach and mentor undergrads, many of whom enter new labs over summer. This price hike threatens to decrease the number of undergraduate mentees on campus, and decrease graduate students’ ability to develop skills highly valued by biotech employers. Needless to say, decreased manpower will also decrease the productivity of NC State.
The price hike will also discourage the world’s best researchers to educate, innovate, and find solutions.
To park in Dan Allen deck, graduate students pay 30 percent more than faculty to use the same structure. The NCSU Office of Research and Innovation reports an average graduate student assistantship of $16,000 before taxes, approximately $12,800 after taxes. With the price hike, graduate students will realize an increase from 2.9 percent to 3.75 percent of net annual income being deducted for parking.
There was an extreme lack of communication prior to this drastic price increase. If the campus community had been informed prior to open registration for permits, we could have budgeted better. The town hall meetings that took place to address virtual permits could have presented an opportunity for Transportation to interface with students about the price increase and invite feedback.
A 30 percent price increase is in opposition to the spirit of the claim made by Transportation in 2017 that they would strive to not impose sudden increases.
The Transportation Annual Report FY17-18 (pg 4) states “Slight increases in fees are necessary in order to plan for future projects, secure loans and pay off debt. Our fees are determined by projecting operating, maintenance and project needs over a five year period and calculating the revenues needed to fund those efforts. Annually we review the five year projections and adjust as the needs of the campus change. This long range approach helps ensure we have the funds required without imposing sudden and significant annual fee increases on our customers.”
Contrary to this statement, a sudden and significant fee increase has been imposed. Other alternatives, such as a tiered permit pricing system based on salary, similar to UNC, may offer the needed increased revenue without being an undue burden on students.
The price increase will restrict sustainability through operations that prevent collaborations and diminish the quality of life.
The NCSU Sustainability Strategic Plan lists multiple strategies that will directly increase the ability of students to travel between campuses, by promoting alternative travel through increased safety, facilities, resources, and operations for biking, walking, and taking the bus.
While these strategies facilitate transportation between campuses, they will not be as effective in facilitating transportation to campus for commuters. As distance between work and home increases, alternative transportation becomes less feasible. The Wolfline only offers a solution to students who live within a small radius around campus, and biking is not always a practical solution. Living closer to campus is also not a solution because rent prices dramatically increase with proximity to campus.
I recognize that the transportation department can decrease single-occupancy vehicles by increasing prices. However, while increasing prices would result in the desired outcome of reduced single-occupancy vehicles on campus, it would hinder progress of the other 30 strategies listed in the strategic plan.
NC State believes to solve complex challenges, we need more than ideas, we need practical solutions. This price hike is not a practical solution for funding or sustainability problems and threatens to stifle the university’s ability to develop leaders and solutions to challenges impacting society.
