Parking on campus sucks.
However, the lack of parking spaces available after 8 a.m. affects students and university employees alike. According to FIU’s Analysis and Information Management Factbook, the University has 8,030 full-time and part-time staff ranging from office & administration support staff to graduate assistants. This data excludes employees of different companies like Chili’s and Barnes & Noble.
Any employee working at the University – like students – must purchase a parking decal if they want to opt out of the metered parking. The more expensive the parking decal, the more accessibility you are given when it comes to parking.
However, unlike students who are limited to parking in student-designated spots, faculty and staff are able to park not just in their designated spots but in student spots as well.
For example, the administration decal, which costs $286 a semester, gives the option of parking not just in the spaces labeled ‘Admin,’ but also Faculty/Staff and Student. Faculty/Staff on the other hand, ranges from $84 to $140, and also gives them the option of parking in student spaces.
This editorial board has noticed that more “Admin” spaces have become available in different areas of the school, such as in the Gold Garage, but the availability of the cheaper Faculty/Staff spaces has decreased. This decrease in availability for university employees has affected the availability of student parking as employees have had to resort to parking in student spaces.
FIU’s status as a commuter school should mean the University has enough parking spaces available to fulfill the need of its community. But, it doesn’t.
The University’s parking problem is not just a student problem, it’s affects the community as a whole. Faculty and Staff should not be pressured into purchasing the more expensive Admin parking upgrade because they are unable to find a space with their decal permits. They should not have to go down the decal food chain and park in a student-designated spot and students should not have to compete with non-students for their spaces. FIU has made efforts to improve their parking situation, with the new PG 6 garage and their introduction of apps such as the FIU Parking and RideFlag, but they need to pause and plan for the future. To better adapt to FIU’s increased numbers of enrollment and employment, administration must focus on increasing it’s parking.
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