Making freshmen pay more to park their cars on campus won’t help budget woes

As the Senior Staff Budget Advisory Group filters through the list of budget cut suggestions, there are bound to be a few ideas they should push to the side.

One such suggestion is layered parking, where freshmen would pay more to park at Central Michigan University than upperclassmen.

Forcing freshmen to pay more for parking doesn’t make sense. A layered parking system will not help solve CMU’s budget woes and should be abandoned.

If the SSBAG were to adopt the layered parking system under the stipulations laid out in one budget cut suggestion, freshmen would pay $450 a year for a parking pass. Sophomores would pay $350, juniors, $250, and seniors $150.

That’s right — the initial suggestion targets freshmen for an increase of $300 in parking fees in order to keep a car at CMU.

Given that freshmen typically have to park in the worst spots on campus — near Kelly/Shorts Stadium — layered parking could turn some prospective students away from CMU.

Parking here is relatively cheap when compared to other universities around the state.

At Michigan State, parking passes range from $268 to $89 depending on the residence hall and lot students choose.

Freshmen are not allowed to park their cars on campus until they have completed at least 20 credit hours.

Western Michigan University students have to pay $300 an academic year to register their vehicles.

Commuters at Eastern Michigan University pay a flat rate of $150 per academic year.

Here, it is $150 -175, depending on the pass.

CMU Police Chief Bill Yeagley believes the university has one of the best parking systems in the state and doesn’t want to see it change.

CMU is one of the few universities in the state that allows freshmen to park on campus.

It remains a unique perk for perspective students.

The administration should do its best to make parking on campus for freshmen still attractive.

If university officials decide to increase the fee for parking passes, or even develop layered parking fees, the price should be kept as low as possible.

Parking passes should not exceed $250 a year for freshmen.

Another option the university could look into is charging more money for prime spots around campus.

In all honesty, layered parking will probably not earn CMU much of a profit.

Fewer students are going to pay more money to park on campus, keeping revenue relatively the same before the layered parking.

At a time when students are having their resources cut from under them, university officials must be careful if they chose to increase costs.

Layered parking is a suggestion that won’t throw much into the university’s budget in the long run.