Belian: Parking Services is preying on the student body
They teach its workers to betray their class
Comic by staff animator Zach Porcaro
I’ve been in a hit-and-run; I’ve been cut off on the highway; I’ve even been stuck in traffic for four hours.
But seeing a Central Michigan University Parking Services’ ticket under my windshield wiper fills me with more rage than any of that.
Primarily, CMU Parking Services is preying on the student body.
According to CMU’s operating budget, the department made $2 million in total revenue in the 2025-26 fiscal year.
Even though the campus is walkable, because of the car-centric society we live in, many students still need a car.
Students who live in the dorms must pay $165 to park their own cars on campus for the year, while students living off campus pay $190, according to the CMU website. Given that most commuter lots are already full anyway, and dorm parking is busiest when parking services isn’t patrolling, this offers no benefit to students.
Mind you, these prices come with the fact that tuition was raised just a few months ago, as previously reported by Central Michigan Life.
Last year, Parking Services made most of its money from registration fees, receiving $1.5 million.
Even while providing very little to the students for a hefty price, Parking Services still has more avenues to rip off the student body.
They are ticketing students $30 for rules that are barely known or taught.
Rules include no parking from 2 to 6 a.m., and license plates must be visible. Students cannot back into a spot without a front license plate, which costs an extra $10.
There is even a $30 violation called “Other Violations,” with no further description on their website.
Students who can’t immediately afford to pay the violation that week are charged an extra $15.
To students on campus, that could be half a tank of gas. For people off campus, that could be their groceries for the week.
Yet all tickets combined account for just 0.081% of CMU’s total revenue from these tickets, with Parking Services making $375,000, according to CMU’s 2025-26 Operating Budget.
Parking Services does have an appeal system, which I’ve heard students have mixed feelings about.
Additionally, this bureau teaches its workers to betray their class. They drive around in their publicly funded, air-conditioned car, costing their fellow students money that could go toward living necessities because of minor infractions that aren’t properly communicated.
And for what? Minimum wages? Is this all that it takes for a person to betray their people?
Personally, I don’t know anyone who works in parking services, nor do any of my classmates. Are they all part of a secluded group? Or do they lack the pride to announce who they really are?
They ticket you for a considerable amount when you don’t understand their hidden or inconsistent rules, and cower away from actual social repercussions for backstabbing their fellow students.
You can say that “rules are rules,” but when those rules are predatory and invoke greed and betrayal, maybe they should change, and change can only happen when you question the authority.
