Within the last year, the cost of Eastern Michigan University parking passes has increased by five dollars, making it $155 for commuter and residential hall students. Five dollars may not be a big difference to some, but it’s a huge difference compared to the prices parking passes used to have within the past few years.
“I don't like that the school didn’t tell us about prices going up,” EMU senior Joshua Cotton said. “It’s only five dollars, but at least give us a heads up; send an email because I was prepared to just pay only $150.”
The increase in prices could be problematic for some students who commute and already have a hard time finding parking spaces around campus. Seeing that there is a lack of parking spaces available on campus to the many students with cars, some agree that parking pass prices should not be increasing.
According to Tina, the customer service representative of EMU Parking, the prices of the parking passes change every year under the decision of the Board of Regents during its monthly meetings.
“The board set the price for passes every year in June or July when they set the school budget, and we just have to follow orders and change the price,” said Tina.
She even recalled when parking passes were only $50 to $75 years ago at EMU. Those prices compared to the amount students have to pay today is about a 77 percent increase.
Commuters, residents and students living in Brown and Munson apartments have to pay $155 per semester for passes, while students who live in university apartments pay $210 for the whole year.
“I don't like how prices went up; they used to be $100. But ever since tuition and everything went up, it affected the prices of the passes,” said university apartment resident Dreshawna Triplett.
Triplett also talked about her distaste with commuter and resident parking privileges.
“I don't like that campus residents like myself can’t park in the parking structure or commuter parking lots, but commuters get to park in our parking areas when we pay more to park,” said Triplett.
Triplett suggested that the university should include Fridays and Saturdays as weekend days for free parking for students who don’t want to buy parking passes or pay to park.
Coming from a teacher’s perspective, buying parking pass prices are not such a big issue to staff and faculty, including attorney and teacher of Journalism Law and Ethics Daniel DuChene.
“Faculty don’t have to pay for parking passes, they are given to us,” said DuChene.
DuChene also mentioned that he doesn’t use his parking pass because he doesn’t drive to campus due to the parking be “ridiculous.”
“The only issue is that there are no assigned parking spots for teachers. We still have to compete for those same parking spots as everyone else with parking passes,” said DuChene.
On the other hand, like teachers, some students don’t find the parking passes to be such a big deal as others believe. Senior and commuter Borbor Sherman made it clear that buying a parking pass is not an issue for him, but he did think the price was a bit high.
“I used part of my refund to pay for my parking pass, so I’m okay with the price increase because the money I used did not come directly from my pocket,” said Sherman.
