Parking on campus can pose a daily issue for many students who make their way to campus. Students like Ben Hall have to make a decision every day they head to class on the best place to leave their car, taking multiple factors into account.
“I live over on Spartan Avenue and I have to get back over to Case Hall for most of my classes,” Hall said. “It’s almost 2 miles to walk there and I tried on my first day of classes and it took me 45 minutes to get there. I decided from then on I would find a way to drive to class.”
The parking at Case Hall is reserved for faculty and staff, so the closest option for commuting Spartans is at Spartan Stadium or the Breslin Center where it’s metered parking for $2 per hour. It would cost a student who has a two-hour class each day $20 a week and $300 a semester to park in a meter spot.
“I already pay enough as it is in tuition and books,” Hall said. “I pay to be in the class why do I have to pay extra to get to the class? Especially when the number of options available is limited as it is.”
Fellow Michigan State student Allie Cohen faces a similar challenge trying to get to class from SkyVue.
“I have class four days a week at the Com building and it’s a 35 minute walk each way from my apartment,” Cohen said. “Early in the year when it was nice outside I wouldn’t mind walking, but now that it’s starting to get cold, there’s no way I am walking.”
The Communication Arts and Sciences building on campus does have a parking garage attached that is available for the public to park via meter parking.
“It may not seem like that much but it adds up over a semester,” Cohen explained. “They rarely ticket at Com, so I am willing to take the risk on getting a $20 ticket. If I pull into the garage and cars already have tickets on them I know it is safe to park because P.A.C.E. has already come through. If I pull in and see them handing out tickets I will pull out and take a lap to wait until they leave then park.”
Cohen also has a class at Hubbard Hall, where the closest meter parking is in the garage next to IM East which is still half a mile from her class.
“I am not paying to still walk 10 minutes to class,” Cohen said. “I started parking in the parking lot of the strip mall across from Hubbard. It’s free and it’s a shorter walk to my class. It’s a no-brainer.”
MSU student and Spartan Marching Band member Jonathan Andrews is yet another student who is frustrated by the campus parking situation.
“It doesn’t feel like there are enough meter spots as it is on campus, especially in places close to my classes,” Andrews said. “I have a lot of classes in south (neighborhood) and almost all those spaces are permit only. Being able to at least park in those spots at least on the weekends when it wasn’t restricted was nice when I lived on campus but now it’s just annoying,”
The new rules about students having to live on campus for two years, have limited the space for upperclassmen to continue to live in dorms and forced them into off-campus housing. Taking a CATA bus is an option but it’s a $1.25 fare each way for all routes that aren’t on campus routes.
“Living off campus I need my car to get around and I don’t live close enough to campus to walk otherwise I would,” Andrews explained. “I would take the CATA but it would cost me to get to a stop with a campus route. I feel like Michigan State shouldn’t be discouraging us from going to class.”
Students’ disliking for P.A.C.E. and parking on campus has become almost a point of unity for students, and it’s almost become a right of passage for someone to receive a parking ticket.
“My roommates and I have a wall in our apartment dedicated to the parking tickets we receive,” Cohen said. “Each time one of us gets one we tape it to the wall and there’s already quite a few between us.”