Parking to Cost $100 Next Year
Acting Dean of the College Gus Jordan announced this morning via email that the College will start charging students for vehicle permits starting this summer. Jordan writes, Beginning next September, students who have automobiles on campus must pay a $50 fee each semester-$100 for the year-to register their vehicles and receive a valid parking pass. This fee will apply to on-campus residents as well as commuters. Language School students will be charged $25 for the summer.”
This is a big, but expected, shift in parking policy. Currently students park on campus in designated lots free of charge. Location of lots depends on your seniority status at the school. Jordan says “the new parking fee will support the expansion of the College’s shuttle bus service and our fleet of ZipCars, the College’s carbon neutrality initiative and off sets, and will relieve the cost of maintaining our parking lots (plowing and repairing them).”
The truth is that most students with cars will be able to front this fee. But it is a fine balance because in a remote location like Middlebury. Any and all transportation options off campus are critical to “escape the bubble.” The fee, while small, may encourage students without discretionary income to leave cars at home. That may be a good thing from Carbon Neutrality perspective, if admittedly unfair. The Zipcar program has been working well for students but on the weekends, there is definitely a need for an additional Zipcar. The problem is that weekday rentals of the Zipcar are nowhere near the usage level of weekend rentals. Perhaps it’s time for some differential pricing for weekdays/weekends.
Amherst College and Williams College both charge $60 per year for parking fees.
The Student Government Association (SGA) has already done great work this year with buses to Burlington airport before breaks but this adds another item to their long agenda. Getting students off-campus in mass transport will become an increasingly important task.
Since we are paying for parking next year, is the school going to open up some of the restrictive parking lots around campus? I had a public safety officer (in a very condescending tone) tell me that my tuition did not pay for the privilege of parking on campus. Now that students are paying for parking are we going to be given more/better parking spaces.
I think it’s still unlikely that the restrictions on the locations of parking lots will be lifted or changed drastically. Freshmen will still be down at the CFA, etc.
Another instance of getting nickel and dimed in the name of carbon neutrality. The cause is great, but the college is making the students take up the bill.
Better than having those of us who don’t have cars on campus take up the bill.
Robert: what do you mean “the College” is making the students take up the bill? The students ARE the College, or at least a big part of it. It was the students who brought the proposal to go carbon neutral to the admin and trustees, and convinced them this was a worthwhile initiative. When the administration ignores the students, it’s bad. When it listens to the students, its bad.
Beyond this, however, Middlebury was among the last, if not the last, not to charge for cars, and is in the minority among LACs in allowing first-years to have cars on campus. This was an issue long before going carbon neutral was on anyone’s radar screen. It costs something to support an infrastructure/campus necessary to support 1500+ cars. Why should those who do not bring cars pay for that as they have for years?
Any idea whether they’ll make us pay for temporary parking, and what the definition of temporary might be? I usually borrow my family’s car for the last two or three weeks of school so I have it to move out… they wouldn’t make me pay anywhere near $50 for that… would they?
Jerry– You’re right–”the college” does imply a separate entity. Consider the fact that the students are taking up this fee, not teachers, who also use the parking lots. Interesting.
I’m not convinced this has ANYTHING to do with carbon neutrality, since the only use a car has on campus is taking short trips into town or driving home. Flying to school would be a lot less carbon efficient, and one would have to get to the college by car regardless. So let’s put the real issue out on the table: our endowment has plummeted, and we want to use our students as a crutch instead of being fiscally responsible elsewhere.