Students who work on campus continue to lose money, paying for parking permits or daily parking. This trend isn’t only seen at CSUSM but also around other San Diego County colleges.

School parking continuously affects student workers, staff and faculty on campus.  The price to park on campus is almost equal to an hour of work at a minimum-wage campus job.

Other universities in San Diego County such as San Diego State University (SDSU), University of San Diego (USD) and University of California, San Diego (UCSD) require every student worker on campus to pay for parking passes. Although all schools require student workers to pay, some of these schools parking rates are cheaper than the ones at CSUSM.

“[SDSU] offers $11 passes each week while their other parking passes go for as little as $37 each month,” said Daniel Hoffman, SDSU Parking and Services employee. Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU) is the only school in the San Diego County to provide student workers with the chance to register for a free semester parking pass.

CSUSM student employee, junior Kevin Palomino, works at the library resource desk as a student assistant.

When it comes to the financial strain of parking, Palomino said, “Many students risk parking at the Ralph’s parking lot to try and save their hard earned money.”

Palomino said that the school should provide “student parking to all employees or specific employees depending on how long they’ve worked.”

Unlike PLNU, CSUSM only provides free parking for some of their student employees.

Third-year Nic Pollino is a member the ASI Board of Directors at CSUSM. His position is one of the few that is allowed a free parking pass for working students on campus. He receives this pass as a form of payment.

“All student workers should have parking paid for by the school or at least, a way to try and earn a parking pass,” said Pollino. “Because the parking pass is how I get paid, I am required to take another job off campus.”

Student workers who are passionate about this issue continue to search for a solution to this problem by asking Parking and Commuter Services for reasons why they do not receive parking permits and asking students from other schools about their parking rates.  

“I fully understand why parking is not free, but we should at least have some sort of discounted rate for school working staff,” Palomino said.

Belinda Garcia, CSUSM Director of Parking Services, said, “There has been discussion about how parking for student employees should be treated (over the summer term specifically), but because all students are still classified as students, even when they are student employees, the general student rate still applies.”

Garcia then added that  “This is applied consistently. Students are able to purchase any of the general parking permits, including the academic year permit and the discounted XYZ permit.”
CSUSM remains one of a few schools in San Diego County to not offer all student employee parking passes.