College lot parking fees increase by 117 percent
Parking fees in the college lots will increase from $180 to $390 next year, and freshmen and sophomores will pay more to park than juniors or seniors, President David Leebron said Monday. Leebron approved the Parking Committee’s proposed fee structure earlier this month.
The committee decided to start classifying the college lots as premium lots rather than close-in lots this year, Associate Vice President for Finance and Administration Neill Binford said.
“By definition, the college lots have always deserved to be premium lots,” Binford said. “Our definition for premium lots was that they were highly sought-after and right next to where you need to be.”
Naaz Khumawala, one of three undergraduate representatives on the Parking Committee, said the increased cost to park in the college lots should diminish excess demand.
“Currently, the college lots are contested,” Khumawala, a Wiess College junior, said. “They have waiting lists because there are more people who want to park there than there are spaces available. This is what we do with other lots that … have some sort of waiting list. One of the ways to alleviate the problem of having too few spaces is to make them more expensive.”
Sid Richardson College junior Andrew Phillips said he thinks the fee increases for the college lots are too steep.
“I’m going to be parking in a college lot next year, so that’s why it ticks me off,” he said. “That’s a lot higher for the college lots. What I’m really wondering is where all of this money going.”
Other premium lots include Abercrombie, Biology/Geology, Lovett, Main Street and North lots. Lovett Lot, which is open to faculty and staff members, will also have a surcharge of $30 — for a total cost of $420 — in order to reduce excess demand, Binford said.
This year, freshmen paid an additional surcharge of $145 to park in any on-campus lot. Next year, freshmen will pay a surcharge of $175, and sophomores will pay $160 more to park than juniors or seniors. Binford said the committee chose to implement the surcharges rather than increasing fees for all classes in order to phase in the higher parking fees.
“Hopefully, in time, a lot of undergraduates will decide to leave their cars at home, and that will reduce the demand for parking and slow the need for additional garages,” Binford said.
Khumawala said freshmen and sophomores are more likely than upperclassmen to be able to manage without cars.
“We’re encouraging people to not park on campus by increasing fees for incoming freshmen and sophomores,” Khumawala said. “With the new shuttles going to Target and the [Rice] Village, it’s easier for people to not have a car and still be perfectly comfortable.”
Jones College sophomore Allison Morgan said the fee differences between underclassmen and upperclassmen seem unjust.
“I don’t think it’s fair to have it fall on one class,” she said. “There doesn’t seem to be a reason to discourage underclassmen [from bringing cars].”
In all other lots, parking fees will increase by about 10 to 20 percent. The increased fees are part of a long-term plan to make parking and transportation financially self-sufficient, Binford said.
“About three or four years ago we had a deficit of $1.6 million, and that [subsidy is] coming from the source that [funds] academic programs,” Binford said. “Through these stiff fees and through charging visitors for parking, we have reduced that deficit to about $600,000. … We still have to work toward getting it to zero so that parking, like residential housing or the bookstore or the faculty club, pays for itself.”
Leebron said he expects the cost of parking to continue to increase as the supply of parking on campus diminishes.
“I think long-range, the cost of parking is going to have to go up and reflect the cost of building new parking as we use old areas for new and better things,” Leebron said. “We are going to have to build parking that’s above or underground.”
Khumawala said she hopes students will view the increased parking fees in context.
“Costs are rising, we’re in the middle of Houston and these are premium spaces,” Khumawala said. “There’s no way we can run [hundreds of thousands] of dollars in deficit just so everyone can park cheaply. We tried to make it equitable and fair for everyone involved.”
Leebron said that for students, parking fees represent about five percent of the cost of having a car.
“Everybody always wants everything as cheap as they can get it, but if you look around at the cars people drive , … fees are not [seriously affecting] parking on campus,” he said.
Employees making $25,000 per year or less will receive a 25 percent discount on all lots except the premium lots.
Rice will also introduce daily parking vouchers for some nonprofit organizations, Leebron said.
“It’s not a blanket exemption for nonprofits, because then everybody wants to come to campus, put on some event and not charge for parking,” Leebron said. “It’s for [when] we’re engaged with external organizations, particularly K-12 institutions in Houston, and are working together to make a contribution to the city.”
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