By Gabriela Rios
SDSU students are continuing to see a rise in semester parking permit prices each year, with now reaching $174. According to a state audit of SDSU’s parking program, it shows students are facing higher parking permit prices despite fewer parking spots. The state audit, conducted between years 2008-09 and 2017-18, reported a 29% increase in student parking fees and a 6% decrease in student parking availability.
Starting newly this fall semester, SDSU is not permitting on campus students to park on campus, which is set to increase more parking spaces for commuter students. Also, the campus did build a new parking structure at South Campus Plaza. However, the state audit did evaluate how the additional parking still did not increase the overall student parking availability.
Also included in the state audit were three other CSU campuses, Fullerton, Channel Islands, and Sacramento State. These three randomly selected CSU campuses did maintain a surplus in parking fees, but still increased parking availability. SDSU was reported as the CSU campus with the highest total surplus with over $456 million. In addition, the audit stated that SDSU “failed to fully disclose” $1.5 billion in reserves to students and officials.
SDSU has done some changes in order to increase parking spaces, but not enough. Still, many questions arise after reviewing the state audit on randomly selected CSU campuses. Why are students paying more parking permits with fewer spaces? To whom and where is the $456 million surplus going towards? When are we going to see an increase in parking availability? This audit ultimately needs to push more students in questioning the CSU campus about parking and expenses.
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