By Jessie Gambrell

Staff Writer

With general semester parking permits at $338 and the “cheaper” X, Y, and Z parking at $254, everyone wonders why it must be so high?

Other schools in the area including: SDSU – $135 per semester (day only), USD – $140 per semester (full-time commuter), and Palomar – $40 (without a BOGW).

Students disagree with how high the prices are rising, and think it is an unfair thing to do to already struggling college students. These days, with tuition prices creeping up as well as the student fees increasing every semester, it difficult enough for students to make ends meet. This is not to mention the hundreds of dollars that students spend every semester on textbooks, etc. It all adds up.

So why are our parking prices so high?

“The parking at CSUSM is 100 percent self-support, we have no funds from the CSU school system since they de-centralized the parking funds just before we opened this school. I would love to see it go down, but it all depends on the payment we have to make. We really try to make sure that the students know where to park and how to put their permits in place so that they don’t get a citation,” Director of Parking and Commuter Services, Belinda Garcia said.

Our situation is unique considering we are building our only 20 year old school on new land, whereas other new CSUs such as CSU Monterey Bay and CSU Channel Islands are building off of old hospitals and military bases. The new parking structure that was just built cost us over 3 million dollars and will take us 30 years to pay off, so we’re stuck with the parking permit price for the long run.

So what are we to do? The price is obviously not going to decrease anytime soon, although Parking and Commuter Services is offering a $23 discount to anyone who purchases their spring 2013 permit online starting Nov. 1 – 14. Aside from that, we could carpool, take the sprinter, or just suck it up and bite the bullet. Yes, the economy is tough on everyone, which means that everyone will have to raise their prices, some even having to nickel and dime you just to make ends meet. We just need to stay strong and charge ahead. We’ll pull through this.